Gunter Gerdenitsch's ONLINE COMMUNICATION
Online Communication: Unlike Writing on Paper!
June 12, 2003
With the upcoming of e-mail and Internet a new dimension came into the communication. With pitfalls and advantages of its own. Rather different from writing on paper.
"Online Communication" - that's a concept few people know by name, though many people have done it already. When designing a web site, online help for a software application, or any other screen text. Unknowingly.
And that's the crux: Most people tend to make up their online communication just as they use to write on paper. However, writing a screen text is different. There are some pitfalls you should be aware of, and also some advantages specific to online communication.
Online Communication is of growing importance recently. More and more software, initially merely text processors producing documents to be printed out finally, are becoming integrated these days with web features, email, etc. Chances are, that more and more documents produced by them will never be printed out. Instead, they will be "consumed" (read and acted upon) right from screen.
Resources on writing for Online Communication:
http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/
http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/
http://www.gooddocuments.com/
http://www.contentious.com/
http://www.e-gineer.com/e-gineer/articles/web-writing-for-many-interest-levels.phtml
http://www.efuse.com/Design/wa-writing_and_the_web.htm
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~skalman/writework/webwrite.html
http://www.webwriting-magazin.de/ (in German)
1. Write Concisely
Reading on screen is significantly harder than reading from paper - for the time being, at least. There are some developments of
2. Text should be Highly Structured
When writing on paper, you can rely on that your reader will be able to look back several paragraphs. They might be printed on the very same page, or the reader just has to flip back a few pages. Anyway, it always remains there - even physically.
On screen, though, there are just a few lines that the reader can see immediately. (Usually 25, depending on the monitor size even much fewer.)
Therefore, you have to break your subject down to little morsels, easy-to-digest. In a way that the reader can understand each one by itself. Having recurs to only a few cross-references to other parts of the text.
A good method to structure a subject and write concisely at the same time, is writing in a list :- Think about your subject in terms of relevant points: "1. … 2. … 3. … "
- Write down each point as a separate line in a list.
- If you consider a point to need a further breakdown, include a second-level list.
- If you feel you can express a sub-point in a single sentence, make it an item of its own.
- If you feel you should express it in several sentences, separate them by line breaks.
- If you remeber that a point was mentioned already in another document, don't repeat it here.
Instead, provide a link to it there. - Instead of offering the reader a permanent link, you might consider to provide temporary Info's (see my article: Use Temp. Info's to show "what's behind"!)
- A permanent link is not so user-friendly: once there, the reader has to click the Back button to resume reading in the old document.
- So, if the link text is not rather expressive, the readers might feel hoaxed:
- First they were instigated to click and jump there.
- Then it turned out to be not what they had hoped.
- Finally they were forced to click once more to get back where they left off.
- Therefore, it's better to provide a temp. Window (see Use Temp. Info's to show "what's behind", section "Temporary Window") combined with a permanent link: <A HREF=…> … link text … </A>
3. Titles / File Names should be Meaningful
Of course, on paper your titles and file names should also be "telling" what to expect from the following texts. But there, it's not that strict: in case of doubt, the reader can always look up the text.
On screen, however, there is not much text that can be seen immediately, without scrolling. Moreover, it's harder to read it. Therefore, the readers will pretty soon prefer those authors who can given them a good idea of what can be expected from the following text (and to scroll ahead) - over those who can spout only a few gags.
4. Careful Screen Layout Needed!
On paper there's not very much you can do to polish the face of your text. On screen you can do much more - and you should make use of it:
- If you can break down an idea into a number of separate sentences, write them down in a bulleted list! (See what I'm doing here?)
- If breaking down gets stuck at elements of several sentences, each one should be headed by a title, the titles should be numbered.
- On paper it might be irritating to have too many typing markups (such as bold face, underline. italics, etc.) On screen the reader will be rather thankful of it, if it's not too much.
- You can never be sure how big the reader's screen will be. Some multi-word expressions could be confusing when broken into their parts (such as
"e-mail" mentioned above: Your reader might not understand it at first glance, if it's "e-" at the end of one line and "mail" at begin of the next line!) In this case it is a good idea to embrace it by <NOBR> ... </NOBR> . (Then it would always be"e-mail" , either at the end of a line or at the begin of the next line. Try to resize your screen, and watch this expression!)
5. Keep Screen Resolution in Mind!
If you are writing a text that's to be printed on paper, you don't have to care about the resolution of the final print. Whereas on screen, the resolution might make a major difference:
- If it's low (say, 800 x 600), all the letters of your text will appear large and easy to read. However, the reader might quickly lose overview. For example, if you are enumerating the items of a list, your message might go astray if the reader can see only a part of it on screen.
In extreme cases, if you have a complicated screen layout with various frames, some parts of your text might even exceed the screen. If you did not consider it and switched off the scrolling of your frames, the exceeding parts will never be accessible to the reader. In other words - they are just lost!
- If it's high (say, 1200 x 1024), the letters of your text will appear small and hard to read. Your readers will be tempted to skip long, monotonous sentences. Therefore, you should use more markups.
In extreme cases, your text might be shrinking so small that your text is simply illegible. No one will ever care about what you have to say, if it's just too small to be read without aching eyes!
6. OnlineComm in Mobile Computing
Online communication comprises basically 4 topics:- Target platform? Ask yourself the following questions:
- Operating system - Windows CE, Palm OS, … ?
- Screen size - pixels: 240 x 320, 480 x 240, 640 x 240, 640 x 480, … ?
- Screen size - characters: lines, columns?
- Colors - yes, no?
- User input by mouse, stylus, touch screen, … ?
- Keyboard - external, "soft keyboard" for tapping on screen?
- New controls - command bar, date & time picker, … ?
- If mouse, how many mouse buttons?
If no mouse, is "right click" available?
- Structuring of information to communicate. (Details:)
- Keep a basic structure:
- result, outcome, recommendation, …
- facts, background, …
- implication 1
- implication 2
- ::
- conclusion
- If needed, do multi-level structuring:
- chapters
- sections
- ideally, down to 1 line of text.
- For writing there is a number of tricks:
- Consider using a Dynamic List - display only what the user wants to see!
- Each sentence should be written as succinctly as possible; some good tricks:
- write numbers as digits
- make full use of punctuation
- cut out any word that does not contribute information
- always look for a brief synonym
- use contractions, abbreviations, etc. (Many chances for that in the English language!)
- Write different things in different layout (examples:)
- use a fixed-pitch font for screen messages.
- use a yellow background color for code examples
- use different letter size to indicate major/minor sections
- use italics, bold, underlined letters to stress parts of your text
- To express a multi-point matter, use a list:
- bulleted list if there's no particular relevance to the order
- numbered list if the order is meaningful, e.g. a step-by-step procedure
- If your lists grows too long, introduce intermediate levels.
- Use graphic symbols instead of verbal description (examples:)
- use "…" (HTML: …) instead of "etc."
- use "::" instead of "and others"
- use "->" instead of "towards"
- use "=>" instead of "conclusion:"
- use "<=>" instead of "vice versa"
- Consider using icons instead of a verbal description (e.g. national flags for country names).
- Have an eye to the order of list items.
- Strive for consistency in your text. (E.g. look at this list: Each point has imperative mood.)
- Don't care too much about perfect syntax or grammar - a strange locution is a lesser evil than verbose writing!
- If you are not sure to bring up something in a given context - don't do it!
- Avoid qualifications just to make you feel good, but confusing the reader.
- Use linking as much as possible. (Details:)
- Never repeat anything if it's written already somewhere else; better, you provide a link to it.
- Use internal linking criss-cross.
- A good tool for linking is a FollowMenu or a GhostMenu.
1. Easy Linking
On paper you can give the reader only a small number of cross-references. One hand only has fives fingers; if the reader needs more fingers to look up all the referenced sections in your text - the references will simply be ignored. Even if the reader loses some relevant information by doing so.
On the contrary, on screen you can write as many cross-references into your text as you like. At least, if you do it right. That is, the reference targets should not replace the text the reader is currently on, but e.g. open up a fresh window. (A good web site designer can tell you also some other ways to present a text temporarily.)
2. Use Internal Linking!
A special case of linking is the internal linking (called also "jumping to bookmarks", "hyperlinking, etc.) That's a nice little feature by which the reader can jump directly to the associated place anywhere in the same document. Simply by clicking on the respective line in a table of contents, an index, etc.
When writing, you can make use of it by:
- decompose the subject to small chunks you can deal with in a few sentences
- to each of them find a meaningful title
- write all your titles in a list at the beginning of your document,
associate each title with a jump to the respective internal linking ("bookmark", … ) - write a few sentences to each of your chunks, following the list
- don't forget to insert the right title before each of your chunks,
associate each title with the respective internal linking ("bookmark", … ). - You can give your document even more "reader-friendliness", if you provide an additional internal link (e.g. "top") back to the list at the beginning, after the end of each chunk.
- If you can use a floating section menu (such as in this article) you can provide a highly detailed structuring, without sacrificing too much precious screen space.
- By a cascading section menu (such as the one in the top right corner) you can give your document a multi-level structuring.
(Lump together some of your chunks to a common section titled by a broader term. It becomes the title of an intermediate level, by which your reader is incited to drill further down.)
With good decomposition and comfortable internal linking you can present your document such that the reader never has to scroll - only clicking on the internal links. (Did you notice how I presented this article?)
3. Easy Markup
When writing a text to be printed, you might be limited in the plenty of markups you can use. When writing a text to be displayed on screen, you can use any type of markup your software has to offer. You can use different colors and background colors (if it adds communicativeness!). You can use different letter sizes. If your software allows macros, when writing your own macros you can come up with even more.
You can decorate your text with graphics or images. In modern software you can even include audios and videos in your text. Learning psychology knows for a long time already that something you have learned by using multiple senses (e.g. you have seen + heard) is much more memorable than if you had only read it.
4. Supporting downloads
You can always offer downloads supporting the points you make in your text. The downloads can be Documents , i.e. data files requiring some software to be made "consumable" by the reader. Or they can even be executables by themselves, i.e. software applications in their own right.
5. Provide User Interaction!
That's something virtually unknown in writing text to be printed on paper. On screen you can build your text around some "games" by which the reader (or should I say "user"?) can try out the ideas you want to get across right on the spot. Again, let me refer to learning psychology: trying it out yourself makes it stick in memory - much better than if you only read it.
6. Much better ways to organize your texts
Once your text is available online, the reader has a multitude of opportunities of how to process it. This is becoming even more relevant when it's not only one text you want to get across, but a collection of texts that needs to be organized somehow.
Your texts are not very meaningful to the reader if they are only bound together and provided with a "table of contents" (TOC). Perhaps there is also an index, telling of a number of keywords where they are occurring (and leaving it to the reader how to get there). - But isn't that just about all you can do if you write your texts on paper?
With online texts you can do much more. In the following there are just a few examples:
- With online communication you can embed your writings into a network of links to the outside world, for example to supporting resources.
- You can equip each link with a "tooltip", a short commentary flashing up temporarily. (See
http://www.itspecial.org/article210.htm If you leave the cursor on this link for about ½ second, you will see what I mean. ) - Instead of a "hard-printed" TOC you can also provide an "image map". (See
http://www.itspecial.org/article217.htm ) - If you think it more appropriate, you can provide cascaded menus or even a Floating Menu. (See
http://www.itspecial.org/article402.htm ) - If you have a text passage you want to appear similarly in all your texts, apart from a small number of individual modifications, you can use Flexible Includes (See
http://www.itspecial.org/article403.htm ) - Frequently you will want to show some contents (text or images), but you don't want the reader to be able to make a copy of them and use it in another context. With writing on paper there's not much you can do against it. With online communication you can pose at least a psychological barrier against copying. (See
http://www.itspecial.org/article221.htm )
With DHTML and Javascripts, the only limit of what you can do is in fact your creativity!
Gunter Gerdenitsch is an international IT-specialist with focus on Communication. IT service providers - looking for a freelancer for peaks in your workload, want to get your ideas across? Then you should visit http://www.ITspecial.org or mail to gg@ITspecial.org
Copyright © 2003, Gunter Gerdenitsch, All Rights Reserved.
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