“First we thought the PC was a calculator. Then we found out how to turn numbers into letters with ASCII — and we thought it was a typewriter. Then we discovered graphics, and we thought it was a television. With the World Wide Web, we've realized it's a brochure.”
— Douglas Adams

As a faculty member, you have many years’ experience writing and editing academic content. You have written a multitude of speeches, articles, and books, and you may think that there is nothing more for you to learn about writing. However, new technologies are changing the way we disseminate information, and thus force us to reexamine how we write as well. Would you communicate your ideas in the same way in a public speech as in a journal article, or would you take into account the differences between hearing an idea aurally and reading it in print? When it comes to publishing content on the web, the best online writing takes into account the ways in which users read and interact with online content. In other words, the medium must inform the message.

Over the past several years, patterns have been observed regarding the ways that people read online. These patterns vary according to users’ age and technological familiarity, but there are some basic truths that are important to know when developing online content. The first is that web users tend to scan online content for information rather than reading text word-for-word as they would on paper. The driving factor behind this behavior is that reading text on a computer screen has been shown to be significantly slower and less pleasant than reading printed text (which you may know from your own experience). Another rule of interaction is that users dislike scrolling through many screens of text and prefer short pages with content that is brief and to the point. So, in writing for the web, you are trying to convey information to an audience that is impatient and easily frustrated. This is no easy task, but it becomes less difficult when the following basic guidelines are implemented.

In light of these guidelines, publishing academic content online obviously presents a unique set of challenges. Your most recent article or a primary source text may not conform to the formula of concise, easily scannable chunks of content. While there are no easy answers to this dilemma, there are a couple of ways you can adapt length texts for online consumption. Once again, “chapterizing” content, or breaking it up into multiple pages by topic, can make it easier to read online. When doing so, it is important to make navigation between the pages as easy as possible, with clear links to the previous and next sections. It is also recommended that you provide a hyperlinked table of contents so that users can see an outline of the material and easily access a particular topic. Another alternative for lengthy text materials is to provide a link to a printable version (usually a PDF file created for the Adobe Acrobat Reader) so that users have the option to print out the material and read it offline.

In addition to adapting your writing to the needs and habits of web users, there are several ways in which you can design and lay out your website to make your content more readable and easily understandable. In the dual role of writer and designer, you need to be aware of reading behaviors that are usually addressed by a graphic designer or production artist. First of all, it is important to create a visual representation of the hierarchy of information, taking into account the ways in which people use visual information to group and give meaning to objects. A simple example of this is your basic outline structure, which is designed to take into account the fact that people read from left to right and top to bottom. Therefore, primary items are displayed at the far left and on the top of a list, and sub-items are placed below and indented to the right. Some other basic guidelines to consider when creating a visual hierarchy are that the most visually dominant elements on the page will be perceived as the most conceptually important. Elements that have the same visual weight as one another will be perceived as having equal importance. Visual weight is established by such factors as color, text size, and boldness of text. For these reasons you will often see page titles in the largest size text and bold, with subheadings also bold but a size or two smaller, body text smallest and not bold, and linked text in a different color and/or underlined.

In addition to visual hierarchies, there are a few more design guidelines you can apply to make your content more easily readable. Studies have shown that text is easier to read if line lengths are from 3-5 inches across, so use tables to limit your text column width, avoiding text that stretches all the way across the screen. Regarding font styles, use sans-serif fonts such as Arial or Verdana, as they are easier to read on-screen. Also, make sure that there is plenty of contrast between the background color of your page and the text color, and avoid busy or patterned background images, as they are distracting to the eye.

As you can see, developing an awareness of the ways in which people interact with online content can help you greatly enhance the usability of your web publications. In applying the techniques and guidelines described here, you can combine concise, clear writing with an intelligent attention to layout and design to create online content that is easy to navigate, read, and understand.
If you would like to read more about usability and information design, here are a few resources to get you started:

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