What Else Do we Know About the Human Factors on the Web?

2007-10-18 17:30 | 07. Human Factors , 08. Writing for the Web

Throughout my linguistic considerations on Web texts so far, I already pointed out that users of Web sites can have very different contexts when accessing the information that is given. As a consequence, we must expect that visitors may have many different levels of reader interest in our Web texts. “Every person has a certain level of interest in every piece of information. A writer should help each reader to get their desired level of information as quickly as possible.” (Wallace 1999)

I have also remarked that readers on the Web cannot perceive all the contents of the Web site as a whole, the same as they could by holding a piece of conventional writing in their hands. It is also the field of view of a computer screen which is limited, not only the human eye’s capacity. Conventional texts usually reveal their entire set of information on a first glimpse, Web sites do not.

In addition, hypertext – which Web sites use to consist of – “may prevent readers from using their knowledge of typical text structures” (Espéret in: Rouet et al. 1996, p 153). As Web sites represent new ways of accessing textual information, i.e. by allowing the reader to interact on the information flow and so by donating him the role of a co-author, users may frequently alternate between multiple pages, even between multiple Web sites; people do not necessarily browse a specific Web site and stay with its navigation features. With hypertext they are often forced to focus on many individual sites (see also Nielsen 2000a).

Consequently, Web texts call for more specific cognitive abilities in general. This is a statement that has rarely found its way into the literature on writing for the Web, yet, even if many of the ‘traditional’ arguments concerning the human factors express nothing but an increased cognitive activity while reading Web texts. However, I have shown that one could also have concluded this outcome from a linguistic approach, as I have presented here.

The Rules of Thumb for Web Writing

Nevertheless, it seems not to be important which human factors, physical or cognitive, represent the most valuable reasons for some easy-to-get consequences for writing on the Web. In fact, almost all authors agree on the rules of thumb for Web writing, which Nielsen has summarised so many times (see e.g. Nielsen 1997, Nielsen 1998, Nielsen 2000, see also Kana et al. 2003, Kilian 1999):

Firstly, be succinct by keeping texts short.
Secondly, write for ‘scannability’ by structuring articles with meaningful headlines and highlighted keywords.
Thirdly, make use of hypertext properly by splitting up the information in coherent chunks that each forms a semantic unit, focussing on a certain topic.

Following these three rules for writing on the Web may already allow users to “get the gist of the page even if they don’t read all of it” (Nielsen 1997).

Summary and Thoughts for the Future Postings

By now, I have approached the actual form of communication on a Web site, which is still written text, but which is often combined with other semiotic forms, according to the possibilities of Internet and computer technologies. For that purpose, I have characterised Web texts from a linguistic and a communicative point of view. The postings on design and hypertext have already marked a transition from linguistic and communicative considerations to technical aspects of Web texts.
However, I consider all of these findings relevant for any approach towards the writing process on the Web, as there are some particular problems entailed in the nature of Web texts that a Web author must be aware of. Besides these important considerations, three basic guidelines for writing on the Web have been derived from the characteristics of Web texts. The next few postings will explain how to make use of these rules for the writing process in order to communicate the messages required by any business conception.

What Else Do we Know About the Human Factors on the Web?

The Rules of Thumb for Web Writing

Summary and Thoughts for the Future Postings

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