Chapter7

Chapter Seven Response
Team 4- Douglas Jones, Catherine Gray and Mandy Sweeter


 * Chapter 7 – Designing Your Web Pages for easy Use **

As this chapter points out, new research suggests that people prefer sans serif fonts when it comes to web writing. One reason for this preference may be that people are familiar with them as many new sites are using this “cleaner” font style. In my experience, many sites that I come across that use serif fonts are more traditional and/or low budget sites. Although many media outlets still use serif fonts for publication, I find myself using san serif fonts almost exclusively as I find them to be easier-to-read and cleaner-looking from a design perspective. Check out the following link for a good example of how the two look on screen.[| **http://www.webdesignref.com/examples/textex.htm**]
 * Serif versus San Serif**

As most of us are probably aware, font style is extremely important to the readability of a web document. The overuse of capital letters in a document can be daunting to read. I don’t mind a short heading in all capital letters, but I should never have to read an entire paragraph in all capitals. Don’t forget that much like the infamous exclamation point, using all capital letters represents shouting as it relates to writing. As the book suggests, use capitals only for short phases; and as an alternative to capitals, you could use bold or colored headings. At the last company that I worked for we had a site that listed all of its 100 hybrids in capital letters (in a chart-style document no less). It was terribly hard to read; even worse, many of the hybrids were named similarly, so it was hard to distinguish one hybrid from the next. The following link is a good example of what is like to read a paragraph in all capitals. In addition, if you scroll down there is another example of a paragraph in all capitals in a cursive-style font (wow, after seeing this example, none of us will ever make this mistake). [|**http://www.jeorgethedodo.com/lousy/caps_and_fonts.asp**]
 * Capital Letters**

Redish points out that the use of empty space is crucial to good website design. Just by glancing at a site, most people can judge if a websites is too cluttered. They are too hard on the eyes, and give off the appearance of too much information; thus are skipped over. On the other hand, if a site looks empty, one may question whether it is actually finished or not! The search engine google.com has probably one of the most extreme examples of utilizing empty space. They manage to make it work by focusing the user on the center of the screen, where their logo and the search box are located. All other essential links either lie underneath this, or are located in a global navigation bar at the top. They found that key to proper use of space was to put in what people need, without distracting them from their intended goal. In contrast, the following site shows examples of some of the worst websites on the Web. Open the link and scroll down to #8. This is a good example of what //not// to do when it comes to using active space wisely. []
 * Using Space Wisely**
 * Chapter 8 – Tuning Up Your Sentences

Using the “You” and “We” Attitude** The first suggestion in chapter 8 is to talk to your site visitors by using the term “you” when referring to them and “we” when referring to your company or organization. I call this using the “you attitude” and this concept certainly isn’t exclusive to web writing – many other types of documents benefit from this style of writing as well. The goal is to make your users feel like they are connected to your site and by using the term “you” they will feel like the information is directly aimed at them. I find this guideline particularly important when it comes to the “frequently asked questions” content area of a website. The following website is a good example of making the user feel connected to the information by using the “you” attitude. [|**http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/**]

Have you ever been to a website that seemingly gave every waking detail of its existence? Well, I have, and it is really annoying. When I go to a site, I just want to be given the pertinent information in a concise, yet meaningful manner. For example, the company that I formerly worked for gave the company’s life story, in addition to the owner’s complete family history, as it related to the business. In theory, it was very interesting information, but non-essential to the task at hand. In fact, I really believe that it drove people away from our site, as every page that one would go to said more and more about the history of the company – it sort of become boastful. In addition, the sentences and paragraphs were way too long and cumbersome. When we overhauled the site, we left much of the historical information, but we “cut to the chase” when it came to the details. By being more concise, cutting out the fluff, and reformatting the information (bulleted segments rather than long paragraphs), we were able to cut the content by at least half – yeah!
 * Cutting Out the Clutter from Your Sentences and Paragraphs**

Another concept that Redish stresses in this chapter is the use of active voice when writing web content. Her reasons for making this argument are twofold. First, active voice follows the rules of grammar more closely than passive voice, so it presents a more logical word order to the reader. We were all taught to write in active voice in our grade school English classes, so that is the style we are the most comfortable with reading as well. Second, Redish cites a study showing that when people read a page, they translate what they read into active sentences, leading us to conclude that active voice is the preferred style of writing. The study also showed that the readers misinterpreted many of the passive sentences as they did their mental translation, meaning that the comprehension level for passive voice was lower than for active voice. The following links give more perspective on active voice versus passive voice. · [] · [] · []
 * Using Active Voice Instead of Passive Voice**

One of the points that Redish makes at the outset of this chapter is that standards for good writing have changed over time, as have people’s expectations about appropriate writing style. In the age of the web this is an important concept, and Redish emphasizes this late in the chapter. Content writers need to keep in mind that the information they post on a web page is universally available. If they intend for web readers to understand it and use it, they have to write it in a way that can be understood by all segments of the potential audience. As Redish points out, this is not “dumbing down” the content, but rather writing in a clear and concise manner. The Mayo Clinic uses an informal writing style on their “Diseases and Conditions” information pages. Here is one example: · []
 * Use Your Web Users’ Words (Writing Informally)**