How to Keep Web Texts Short (Part 1): The Content Level
2007-11-23 14:22 | 08. Writing for the Web
Different studies on Web usability have found out that Web users don’t want to read long texts because reading from screens is somewhat slower than reading from paper and maybe even painful to the eye, and because reading hypertext entails additional cognitive efforts. Consequently, I have defined succinctness to be a key to effective communication through Web texts, which appears to be in line with the literature on Web usability and Web linguistics. Likewise, the design of Web sites may sometimes limit the space that is primed for a particular text occurrence. For that reason, an author will have to keep texts short as well. In the following, I shall introduce a few approaches from literature in order to manage keeping Web texts short. The ideas given in the first posting to this problem will mainly concern the content level; solutions of how to keep sentences short will be presented in a second posting.
Just Hit the High Spots
Web authors may agree that it is often hard to tell our client’s wants with only a few words. Salesmen always have lots to say, and Web sites owners are anxious for telling everything possible to make a user buy. And I consent, despite all succinctness, that at least a few sentences with a ‘story’ combined with some essential pieces of information are expected on every page for motivating the user to get into the topic or to provoke interaction. In fact, there are several ways to keep even these texts short and to manage even huge amounts of information, though maintaining usability.
One method applicable to writing short texts simply refers to the pre-selection of information. For that purpose, one has got to approach the messages intended to be in the text from a factual perspective. Authors could recapitulate their clients’ concepts and see that it is not always necessary to explain every single aspect of the business in detail. For instance, from a purely commercial position, clearing up all the technical details of a device is not as important as making people buy it. Appealing to the visitors’ interests may be somewhat more effective, and it may not require long and detailed texts. Such things are often just unimpressive and can be left out.
Use Hypertext Links for Further Details
Besides questioning oneself whether the information is necessary at all to be part of a text, Nielsen (1997) recommends “splitting the information up into multiple nodes connected by hypertext links”. This way, an author would be able to “make text short without sacrificing depth of content” (Nielsen 1997). It may be useful to provide at least a few ideas within one text node to ‘tease’ the visitor and link to more detailed reading (see also 
Lackerbauer 2003). It would not be helpful to explain everything within one article due to what we have learned about users reading the Web. Moreover, users who are already familiar with a company’s ideas will not be ‘penalised’ (see Nielsen 1997), as they could simply ignore the link. Thanks to hypertext, splitting up details into several coherent chunks is possible on the Web and thus shall be applied.
Don’t Mention It Is a Link
Certainly, an author should not use a hypertext link “if the information can be succinctly presented on the current page” (Nielsen et al. 1998). However, when providing a link, one should not mention it is a link at all. For the sake of shortness, it would rather be suitable to “use a description of the information to be found in the link” (Nielsen et al. 1998), e.g.:
‘Visit our agency’s Web site.’
instead of
‘Click this link to visit our agency’s Website.’
A writer on the Web can at least save a couple of words by avoiding such self-referential terms, which may have a strong effect when providing several links within one text node. Nielsen et al. (1998) have also stated that “writing well for the Web means taking advantage of the options the Web offers, but at the same time, not calling attention to the Web”.
An indispensable concern when writing for the Web – as with any other writing – is to avoid grammar (and spelling) mistakes. This is not only a question of the user’s ability to get the message at all, but also of credibility (see Lackerbauer 2003, see also Nielsen 2000). I cannot but mention again that sensibility and expertise on writing Web texts will be essential for the success of the communication with the visitors and thus for the success of any project.
However, grammar and syntax can also give advices for keeping texts short and for being clear with what a text says. There are some practical ideas on how to make use of the grammar of the English language in order to do some good writing on the Web; I will present a few guidelines within the second posting, coming up soon.
Published by Christian Kuhn
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