My content is important, people will read it!
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Hang around web publishing for any length of time and you will hear this line, perhaps you think your content is critically important, maybe I do. Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong! Do you even want to read all of your own content? How long do you normally spend on someone else's web page? Lets explore why visitors are fickle and why publishers tend to say too much. There are lots of reasons, lets look at ten major ones ...
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1) SCANNING — People behave differently when online ...
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More than any other reason, and because of some of them, people behave differently when online. Studies repeatedly show that when online, we scan more than we read. We are going to examine what this scanning pattern looks like when we discuss F-pattern hot spots and we are going to talk about how to write for scanning users in our content section.
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2) FUZZY TEXT — Screen pixels are inferior to printed dots ...
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When we read printed matter it is sharp when compared to on screen text. Screen text is usually rendered at less than 100 pixels per inch, whereas printed text is usually rendered at significantly more than 150 pixels per inch, good quality printing is even higher resolution, in some cases over 1,000 pixels per inch. As a result, our eyes (and brain) have to work much harder to read on screen text. We see the lower resolution of on screen text as 'fuzziness'. We will look at how this impacts the choice of effective typefaces (fonts) in our design section.
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3) GLARE — Back-lit environments (screens) versus ambient light (paper) ...
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The lower resolution of on-screen text, when compared to printed material, is compounded by the back-lit nature of monitors. Once again our eyes (and brain) are more comfortable viewing (and reading) material in ambient light (light reflecting off a page) than computer monitors where the light is emitted by the device (back-lit). As a result, consuming screen based content is slower, more tiring and calls on more of our cognitive capabilities, making cognitive overload (confusion) more likely with on screen material than its printed equivalent.
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4) DISTRACTIONS — Windows, menus, animations, graphics and our environment ...
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As if lower-resolution text and back-lit monitors (discussed above) didn't make life hard enough, then we go and surround our content with other distracting elements — navigation, banners, multiple windows and other computer applications. Some of these items are needed to address the nature of web content as we discussed in bending the spoon (accepted practice to address the nature of the web). Despite the 'requirement' for many of these additional items, when they are not serving their purpose and we are consuming the core content, they become distracting elements. Once again reducing the effective consumption of web content.
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5) SEARCH — Choice in real time and the 'browsing' mechanism ...
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In most cases, when we are reading physically printed material it holds our attention for a significant period of time and if we want to change the item, the idea of 'search' means some form of physical hunt — getting out of your seat, finding another book, magazine or paper, perhaps actually going to a shop. Even if it is in the same book or newspaper, it is an interruption to the flow of content consumption. The web is different — searching is built into the content. Web content includes 'links' that interrupt the content consumption flow. Even if the links aren't in the content, they are in the page, the browser, our favorites or just a URL (www.i-want-something-different.com) away. Search panels, search engines, site maps, suggested links and a host of other real-time browsing and search mechanisms encourage visitors away from the content they are consuming and onto something new — this is the ultimate strength and also the profound weakness of the web.
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6) USER DRIVEN — Unlike other broadcast media, the user is in effective control ...
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The search, browsing and hyper-link mechanisms of the web, combined with the sheer volume of content on almost every topic, put the control of consumption firmly in the hands of the visitor. Nevertheless, despite this control, the dynamics we have been discussing conspire to create a 'mode of use' that is common to most of us — something that has been called 'web time'. The pull of 'other content', the options available, the inbuilt search and the more difficult nature of 'reading' online mean that most of us spend an average of well under ten-seconds on any given web page. Most likely if you are reading this, either you found something here to break your normal pattern, you printed this out, you scrolled to this point and haven't read the text above, you have been told you have to read this, or for some other reason you are breaking the mold.
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7) COMPETITION — You are not the only show in town ...
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On the web, your content is unlikely to be unique! The world is accessible through this medium and there are literally billions of web pages, most likely tens of thousands on the same product, topic, activity or service as your web page. There is also very little to tell them apart in terms of accuracy, quality or other tangible signs. On the topic of web publishing, there are a multitude of resources and this 'Black Art' website is competing with them for your attention. The great thing about the web of course is that there are also billions of visitors and this volume of content is required to service such a large international market. It's a numbers game — is your website going to do better or worse than the average.
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8) ANONYMITY — You don't know who you are talking to (reading from) ...
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I don't know you and you don't know me. This is the starting point for the web, the audience is invisible and unknown and the content creator is invisible and unknown. Addressing this as a web publisher is challenging when compared with most other forms of media publishing where at least some part of the anonymity is addressed by the nature of the media. From a consumption pattern perspective, the anonymity of the web means that as a starting point, visitors have a common level of trust in all web content — lower than printed non-fiction books and higher than television advertisements (but only just). As a web publisher, this means you have to work hard for credibility above the general background level that the web has as a communication medium. The combination of design, content and message devices discussed on this website are the tools at your disposal.
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9) PHYSICALITY — No context, size or other clues are provided by the nature of the medium ...
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One way to think of the web is as a single multi-billion page book. Your browser is the current page you are looking at, you don't know its page number and you have no table of contents. What you do have is some great search tools to help find material in the book — but you never know if you are missing key parts, in the right spot or going through the book in some sort of logical order — welcome to the web. Despite this many web publishers think they are making their own book, starting at the home page and finishing at some logical exit point — not so! You are dropping pages into the 'web book' and your material is being consumed in contrast, consideration and behaviors that are driven by the nature of the 'big book of the web', and not by your small chapter. If you want to show size, order, author, style, table of contents, starting point, finishing point, and other information, you need to construct this yourself, because unlike a book, there is no 'physical aspect' to do this for you. Even if you succeed, there is no guarantee that visitors will separate your publication from the rest of the web.
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10) TEMPORALITY — Usually the material doesn't have an anchor in time ...
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Similar to physicality, web content does not have an anchor in time. When you pick up a book, you get a sense of how old it is, newspapers change color as they age and have their publication date on every page, even television shows throw out clues as to their place in time. Web content, which is really only data, as we discussed under the topic there is no spoon is born time and time again in every instant that a visitor's browser renders the data. To them, the point of consumption is also the defacto point of publication, unless something says otherwise. As a web publisher, this effect is beneficial in allowing the ongoing improvement of content, however when it is important for your audience to understand 'place in time', a deliberate effort to communicate a time other than 'today' is required.
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RESULTING BEHAVIOR — content consumption patterns on the web ...
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SCANNING — Fuzzy (low-resolution) text, back-lit environments, distractions and the real-time availability of search and links to other content in combination make people rush to consume web content. Patterns of media consumption become habitual and as a result when most of us are confronted with web content, we scan rather than read.
HASTE — The sheer volume of content, the ease of search and availability of links, and the scanning patterns that we habitually adopt mean that we hurry through web content, generally spending well under ten-seconds per page. We all rush our web consumption and live in an environment of 'web time'.
MERGING — Haste and scanning and our movement between sites, means that one website merges into another as part of the single big 'book of the web'. The place in time and nature of the content is bound into when and where we consume the content, not when and where it was created.
We will look at addressing these dynamics and those that we discussed under the section on bending the spoon throughout the website as we look at design, content, message and effectiveness.
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For now, lets look deeper into scanning ...
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We can get a window into how site visitors consume web content by looking at F-pattern hot spots, research that lets us take action to maximize the consumption of our most important content elements.
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