[thelist] Transition from Print to Web - to link in text - or not?

A.Rospigliosi at bton.ac.uk A.Rospigliosi at bton.ac.uk
Thu Feb 24 02:51:10 CST 2005


Hi Steven

Lots of interesting points in your lecture, &&  I am always grateful to
anyone who can say "I may have misinterpreted, and what I said maybe is not
so"
I wanted to challenge one of your assertions regarding links in the text,
for most contexts I recommend hyperlinks being presented in a separate area,
labelled related links. It is only in the most learned and academic contexts
that I think Ted Nelson's "Xanadu!" is usable.

What is the feeling of other users of this list regarding inline links?

Finally - a  protocol  query, I have lurked on this list for years but am
new to posting, is the change of subject line (as above) acceptable
practise, useful or does it screw treaded readers?

asher 

-------------------------------------------- 
Asher Rospigliosi 
Senior lecturer: e-commerce and management information systems 
Brighton Business School 
Mithras House 
Lewes Road 
Brighton 
BN2 4AT    Tel: +44 (0)1273 642340 
email: a.rospigliosi at brighton.ac.uk 
http://staff.bus.brighton.ac.uk/ar17/ 
--------------------------------------------  


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Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 21:15:26 -0800 (PST)
From: Steven Streight <vaspersthegrate at yahoo.com>
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: [thelist] RE: Transition from Print to Web
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Message: 21

I'm happy to see specific books mentioned that deal
with the transition from print to web.

As a web usability analyst and content writer, and a
former direct marketing copywriter, I've had to learn
the painful reality of how print copy is nearly 100%
the opposite of web text. Online copy must be short,
chunked into small paragraphs, with generous use of
bold heads and subheads, numbered and bulleted lists,
hypertext links in editorial content, etc. 

Online text must not be readable. It must be
scannable, skimable, enable users to quickly spot what
is relevant to their immediate needs, and enable users
to ignore the rest.

Print media knows nothing of such principles, for the
most part. Yet I see tons of web sites where print
copy is imported into the web site with no
modification. Dense paragraphs, no heads, no subheads,
no links, no lists, etc.

Also, the old fashioned "we" and "our" oriented copy
is wretchedly inappropriate in both direct marketing
and online copy.

Burhan Khalid said:

"When my sales people go out to a client, find out
what is their need (ie. They need to sell widgets) --
they will tell them about our company's experience and
strength in that area (Hey, did you know that 
we did the online widget store for Widget Company,
Inc.?) and proceed to give a brief on why they should
go with us, etc. etc.

When the client comes to our offices (they usually
send a marketing/sales person) -- we (that is my
marketingand technical people) sit down with them to
iron out any concerns before we launch into our
internal development process."


IMHO this approach could be improved (I'm trying to be
diplomatic here).

The salesman should not talk about "we" and "our
company", this is not the best strategy for sales.

The salesman should say "Well, you seem to require an
XYZ widget, to meet your blah blah needs, correct? You
want an affordable, but reliable XYZ that will give
you such and such benefit. Now such and such benefit
is exactly what our XYZ widget provides."

Customers don't give a fig about corporate fluff talk.
They care about a specific problem and its solution.

This is what I mean by sales and marketing coming up
with web site concepts, working with actual web
designers to develop the concepts.

(1.) What sales/marketing/customer service goal do we
want to accomplish with a web site?

(2.) What problems can we solve, with the web site,
for our prospects and customers? (Should we include a
side by side comparison chart to help customers decide
which model of XYZ widget is best suited to their
needs?)

My example the side by side comparison chart is a good
example of something the web site can provide, but few
do.

Start with the customer/end user. Determine their
needs. Determine how your products meet those needs,
as your satisfied, long time, repeat purchase
customers have told you, use their actual words in
your online text.

Whew. End of free lecture.

:^)

=====
Steven Streight
Web Usability Analyst & Content Writer
Blogologist
Digital Media Artist
Virtual Instrument Music Composer

http://www.vaspersthegrate.blogspot.com
http://www.streightsite.blogspot.com
http://www.arttestexplosion.blogspot.com
EMAIL: vaspersthegrate at yahoo.com


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