Making the writing “easy to scan”
Posted on October 30, 2007
Category Best Practices | 4 Comments
In a comment to a previous post, I was asked about the importance of making the writing “easy to scan”, what it meant and how to best accomplish it – bolding text? providing overviews? I started out writing a quick reply, but it quickly grew into something that deserved its own post.
So, what’s the best way to make content “easy to scan”?
Of course, it depends on the type of information you are presenting, but it boils down to giving the reader the ability to quickly peruse the information presented and extract the information they need.
For example, if there is a lot of information, and the reader is required to scroll the screen to see content “below the fold”, an overview would probably be a very good idea. Contrariwise, if the article is short, and can be quickly scanned (especially if you can do so without scrolling the page), providing an overview might be counterproductive.
In the case of an overview, the reader should realise that the overview is just that – an overview, and not part of the content itself. This could be accomplished by simply titling the section “overview” and leaving it at that. It could also be done by setting the overview content in a box or a different font, thereby visually indicating that “this is different”.
Inline bold text can be a problem, as it tends to compete with other formatting (titles, indents, etc.) for brain space and can often make it more difficult to read the content that surrounds it. This is less of a problem if the titles are significantly different than the surrounding text (especially bolded text), but it still can be distracting.
In the post that the prompted the question, I attempted to use our ability to pick out bold content as a way of making the writing easier to scan. I made the individual “best practice” elements bold list items, so they stand out really well, but then provided supporting/supplemental information visually close to and indented at the same level as the initial bullet. This provides you (the reader) with the cue that the bolded info is the anchor, and the related information is directly below.
As you’re reading, I want you to remember that these elements are part of a list, not individual section with titles, so that’s another reason that they’re bullets rather than just bold text.
It’s important to remember that formatting in a browser can be problematic – and I admit that the formatting tricks I’ve used here look a bit better in IE than they do in Firefox or Netscape. However in each case the intent is clear, and it’s easy to pick out the list elements as you scan the page.
Remember that the goal is to make it easy for the reader to quickly locate the information they need, but not distract them in the process. There is a huge “bag of tricks” at your disposal. You can use formatting (text colour, placement and size), heading hierarchy (H1 is bigger than H3, and content under H3 is “less important” than that under H1), layout (sidebars for related information) and other methods to indicate the importance of information and make the content easier to scan.
But the acid test is looking at your information as your reader/user would see it, and asking yourself “can I find what’s important without reading the whole page”? If you can, you’ve probably made the right decisions.
Comments
4 Responses to “Making the writing “easy to scan””
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Find It
Subscribe to The Rockley Blog
-
Of Interest
New books in the 101 Series
Following on the heels of the successful DITA 101: Fundamentals of DITA for Authors and Managers, we're working on three new titles.
Steve Manning is writing Publishing DITA 101, Charles Cooper is writing Metadata 101 and Scott Able is writing Social Networking 101.
Each of these will be an easy to read, yet focused introduction to their own topic areas.
For more information, click here!
DITA 101
If you're in the process of implementing DITA, expect to do so in the future, or just want to learn more about it without having to wade through technical specifications, this is the book for you.
DITA 101 is designed for authors and managers. We've taken our years' of experience helping organizations to move to DITA and training our clients in creating DITA content and distilled it into an easy to read and understand format. Combined with our expertise in developing effective reuse strategies and adopting content management, this book covers everything you need to know to understand DITA from an authors or managers viewpoint.
Now available in hardcopy at at Amazon.com. Click here to order.
Available in hardcopy and PDF format at Lulu.com. Click here to order.
Not sure? Want a peek inside? To get a copy of Chapter 3, Reuse: Today's best practice, click here.
Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy
"This book is destined to become the industry standard for implementing content management" Judith L. Glick-Smith, Amazon reviewer
-
About
The Rockley Group is a content management consultancy with an international reputation for developing effective customer-centric content management strategies.
This blog focuses on content component management; the tools and technology, best practices, structured content, information architecture, customer centric design and the user experience.
The entries are written by the Rockley Group consultants and invited guest bloggers.
Follow Ann Rockley on Twitter
Thanks for that, here are good pieces of advice I will try to use wisely in the fture.
Once again, sound, practical, down-to-earth advice. As ‘identifying the key points in an blog post’ is an issue that I too have struggled with, these are tips that are immediately applicable. Thanks!
Good advice. Maybe you should turn this into a lengthier article.
Another tip you might provide: There’s no reason to guess what your users are doing. With tools like Tape Failure (http://www.tapefailure.com), now you can watch your users navigate your site. Tape Failure records user experiences and provide a video file you can watch to see how site visitors really use your site.
And, because it’s important to have metrics about the majority of your users, not just one or two or them, Tape Failure allows you to compare groups of video files in an attempt to identify some common navigation challenges your users face.
Watching these videos is very revealing and can help you understand the types of improvements you need to make in the future. They also will educate you about features of your site you may not find that important. For instance, at TheContentWrangler.com, we were surprised to learn that many people who visit our site use navigation elements we thought we seldom used.
Again, thanks for the great advice.
Scott Abel
TheContentWrangler.com
[...] Make your writing east to scan … the acid test is looking at your information as your reader/user would see it, and asking yourself “can I find what’s important without reading the whole pageâ€? [...]