The key difference between online and print publishing Gerry McGovern highlights why creating web content requires a totally different mindset to how we are used to creating for print. …in a print world you rarely have…
Writing tips from the CIA’s ruthless style manual It is always fascinating to see how other organisations attempt to keep their writing consistent via their style guides. A good style guide is a mixture of common sense…
Facebook and fewer stories behind rise in web traffic, says Telegraph chief The Telegraph has recently seen an upswing in digital traffic. This is attributed to focusing more attention on how they use Facebook, and…
One of the projects that I (Carley) have been working on over the past few weeks is a review of the content management policy which Duncan and I worked on during the final phase of the Study at St Andrews project. (It…
This is the third of a series of reflections on this year’s Institutional Web Management Workshop. Read an introduction and the other posts. On day three of IWMW we heard from Hiten Vaghmaria, head of digital…
Why audiences hate hard news – and love pretending otherwise Here is a lesson from the Atlantic as to why you cannot simply ask users what they want from a website. People lie about – or do not truly know – what they…
From Google Ventures: 5 rules for writing great interface copy We have been talking recently about content design, the idea that content is not merely written; it needs to be crafted. (The Government Digital Service…
Interesting facts make webpages compelling Web users are task-driven and looking for information. They also dislike “marketese” and “happy talk” (or, as Jakob Nielsen calls it in this article, “blah-blah”). As such, it…
It’s not dumbing down, it’s opening up Here is another great video from the Government Digital Service, this time outlining its approach towards using plain English throughout the website. The big one, and the one I…
On the web, context kills, speed saves Here is an article from Gerry McGovern about one of my pet peeves, happy talk. Web users are highly task driven, and they are not interested in our content attempting to set a…