textgoeshere

Today I gave a couple of workshops at NCVO that introduced some key Web 2 applications and tools.It was pitched at people from voluntary organisations who wanted a better grasp on technology and ideas that have emerged over the last three years. The groups were not early adopters, but wanted a clear understanding of the […]

What’s the French or Spanish equivalent of “Think like a Saxon”?

‘Effective copywriting: the basics’ has been translated into French and Spanish:

‘7 transformations pour des texts à fort impact’ en français par Sébastian Billard
‘Escritura para web (parte 1)’ en español por Bruno Vilches

Many thanks to those two. If you’re interested in translating or re-publishing any […]

What happened to the design? To know more about why styles are disabled on this website visit the Annual CSS Naked Day website for more information. Edit: that was fun.

Links to dozens of dictionaries, archives, encyclopedias, and language resources: ACES Reference Page.

Two classic columns by Jakob Nielsen are a bit misleading. To be sure, he has had a major positive effect on web design. In fact people still quote advice he gave eight (8!) years ago. It’s not out of date. But out of context, his advice on writing for the web consists of - at […]

Dangerous words is a list of cliches and confusions. It’s dated but has some useful corrective advice on the use of spatial concepts online (”back”, “up” etc.). See also The A to Z of alternative words from the Plain English campaign.

These fifty writing tools from Poynter Online are aimed at journalists. Still worth a scan.

Branch to the Right
Use Strong Verbs
Beware of Adverbs
Period As a Stop Sign
Observe Word Territory
Play with Words
Dig for the Concrete and Specific
Seek Original Images
Prefer Simple to Technical
Recognize Your Story’s Roots
Back Off or Show Off
Control the Pace
Show and Tell
Interesting Names
Reveal Character Traits
Odd and […]

A screen reader is a software program that reads the contents of the screen aloud to a user. How do people use them? What does this mean for good web design? This is a summary of research observing users of screen readers carried out at the United States National Cancer Institute.

Screen-reader users scan with their […]

In Designing the User Interface Ben Shneiderman offers eight golden rules of interface design.

Strive for consistency
Enable frequent users to use shortcuts
Offer informative feedback
Let the user know when they have completed a task
Offer simple error handling
Permit easy undo
Provide a sense of user-control
Reduce short-term memory load

Most users don’t care about the structure of your website. They are highly goal-directed and follow a simple stategy:

Does this page have what I’m looking for? Yes: stop. No: Does this page have a link to what I’m looking for? Yes: follow that link. No: click the “back” button.

This is repeated until the user reaches […]