chapter10

Chapter Ten Response
The team response was broken into two sections, with each team member taking six guidelines; In Chapter 10, Redish discusses the “Twelve guidelines for writing useful headings.” In the first five guidelines, she points out how to construct a heading such as, starting out with an outline which is par for the course when doing a research paper or writing a proposal. The outline is the guide to how your content will be organized with indentation, of course. Redish reminds us that she gave the same advice in Chapter 6.

Second, asking questions as headings allows you to go into more detail in answering the question vs. having a basic Q &A section with generic answers. Though Redish emphasizes to make the questions short and to the point which goes back to the site visitor wanting information quickly.

Third, Redish advises to “talk directly to the site visitor” so they can be engaged in the statement headings. That is why it is important for the headings to stand out as key messages.

For guidelines four and five, Redish discusses the importance of action phrases and noun phrases. She warns that nouns should be used sparingly because site visitors sometimes don’t convey the meaning the same as the web writer. This is another example of writing where the site visitor can understand it. This is where knowing your audience comes into play again. The point that Redish makes in number six is to put the site visitor’s words into the headings. This will help make a connection with the reader, use words that they will understand.

The guideline number seven was very informative in what the readers of the website will understand in reading the heading. With The power of parallelism Redish points out you can help the reader scan and grasp what information they need from the web site. Redish also suggest using the same form of heading, for example if your main heading is a question be consistent and make all the headings a question.

The guideline number eight helped me with the web site that I designed and updated for my husband’s Real Estate web site. I found I was not following the guideline eight and I was using too many different levels of headings.

Redish writes that, because web articles should be shorter than a typical book chapter, they should be broken into different sections. That you should outline the web site as follows, page title, and then followed by only two size levels of headings. In the ninth guideline Redish gives the advice of making the heading level obvious, the important association that people make with the size of the heading. If it is bold and big, they will know that it is important and they will read it. Make the heading at least 2 points bigger than the words that follow it.

Guideline number ten is about how headings should be bold or color, this will help the headings stand out in the web page. The type of text is important too. The rule of not making the heading blue, and not to underline words in a heading unless it is a hyper link is helpful. I also think that a word that is the color blue and is underlined is a hyper link. The difference of color and what words are bold can confuse the readers of what is important.

The writer should Avoid Italic words because they do not stand out on the computer screen, and are not very effective in a heading. All capitals are not a good idea in a heading either.

I always found same page links helpful in searching a web site, and Redish agrees. When you use same-page links they should be on the same page, not on the side or on a different page.

The 12th guideline helps you evaluate the headings in your web site. You should understand the heading; they should flow, and tell a story. You should be able to see the “big picture” and understand the information that is in the headings. The heading should also distinguish different sections of the web site. Chapter 10 is very useful chapter that will help a web site become more understandable.

My Response:

In this chapter, as this group points out, the main goal is to create headings that are both useful and logical in order to help users obtain the information they need. As is Redish’s style, she puts everything that is important to remember when creating headings in a relatively short list that keeps one focused when working on a particular aspect of a web site.

I think one of the main points that people have the hardest time with is consistency. On many sites I visit there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to how they chose the headings. In many cases, I feel that a point that Redish brings up may be the culprit. In this chapter, Redish tells us that headings simply cannot be applied to old text. It does not add any clarity to text that needs to be reworked. In looking at many websites, I have seen this in action. The text may be spaced better, but I still have to dig for any information that I am trying to find. The headings end up making the search harder, thus leading me, and very likely, most other users to go looking elsewhere for what we need.

Solving this problem may take more time on the part of the people working on the website, but in the end it is worth it. Simply taking the same data and outlining it in a simple, straightforward way, can vastly improve the usability of a website, generating far more positive attention.