chapter1

Chapter One Response

 * Robyn Goldy and Lance Schwartz – Team One**

The task at hand is to connect the chapter (in this case chapter one of Redish) to my own experiences. The author begins by telling us that web users come to sites for specific purposes. What better way to verify this than to look at my own Web habits for a day?

My Web habits on a daily basis are fairly predictable. I start the day with news sites. My work usually leads me to sites that assist me with fact gathering and writing tips. I also spend time on the Minnesota State site—checking the library for publications or heading to the Technical Communication site to answer a question about a particular class. All of these are certainly for specific purposes. The author notes that while users go to sites to get information, they tend to skim and scan rather than read the whole page. So far, nothing in the chapter has been controversial, new, or earth shattering information. But then Redish talks to the reader about "conversational web writing." The advice rings true for me. My examples in the second week of discussion centered on the Apple Computer web site, because I find their Web writing to be very conversational and inviting.

· For example, when Apple wants the web user (reader) to watch a video about a product they don't put a link up that says "product videos" they put an inviting icon or picture up that says, "Watch the Keynote." Sure, I can do that—watch. It's a call to action that invites me into the conversation.

· Additionally, the Apple web writers don't put up simple words like "Customer Support" when inviting customers to interact with employees that will help, instead they invite the user to "Speak to an Apple expert." Well, yes, I do want to speak to an expert because I feel like I'm going to get my question answered.

· Finally, when describing a web page about the Mac operating system the writers invite the web user to "Learn your way around a Mac in minutes." How easy can it be? Sure sounds better to me than "Mac operating system information."

The point that Redish wants to make is that web writing is like a conversation. And the conversation needs to invite the user to be a part of the conversation. The best way to accomplish this is to make the conversation friendly and easy to understand. Web sites are an information portal. People go to the web to accomplish a task and many times that means foregoing a phone call to get the information we need or to do something. How does this apply to me? Just today I booked an airline flight, hotel, and purchased music on a web site. And I did this quickly and efficiently because the information was presented in a way that was easy to find. Redish says good web writing is not about the words, but how the words and images are arranged. Her example regarding a new airport was excellent. It didn't necessarily eliminate words, but it certainly arranged the words in a more useable manner, which leads us to the final component of chapter one.

Finally, the author talks about how to make sure that your words and images are usable. The process to accomplish this is called usability testing. The time to start testing is not when the site is done or nearly done, but at the beginning. This certainly hits home for me because I've been in on the ground floor of some web site design and we didn't test until later in the process. Getting at the testing early keeps the bad design to a minimum and allows the developer to have a more polished product in the end.

For the most part, the topics covered in chapter one set the stage for the rest of the book. It whet the appetite so to speak, but I'm sure we are all hungry to hear what Redish has to say as her style and presentation in this text is simple, straightforward, and usable.

My Response:

I have to agree with what group one said. Nothing in the first chapter was an earth shattering new idea, but it did have a clear purpose. By putting what we already knew into words, Redish gave us the ground work to turn what we already understand about websites into a bridge letting us expand our knowledge. From my years of experience surfing the internet, I intuitively understood the concept of the “conversation” between the user and the website, but I never have thought about it in any respect. I feel that I am a typical user, and when I am online I don’t often think of the “Why” and “how” of what I am doing or how I am interacting with the pages I look at. Redish points this out, in a way, to enlighten me on the answers to those questions and how knowing about this will make any website I help create that much better. It makes perfect sense to me, as I always believe that one must understand something fully if they want to be able to do it themselves.

I also think it’s good to point out one’s own web surfing habits right out from the start. It is much easier to predict how someone will use your own site, when you don’t forget what it is like to be a user yourself. Your needs may not reflect those of your user, but you will at least have some idea how they will look at your site from your own experience.