Information Design Redish Ch 3, 2007

Information Design

Redish, Janice. “People, People, People.” Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content That Works. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kauffman/Elsevier, 2007. 11-28/

——, “Starting Well: Home Page.” Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content That Works. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kauffman/Elsevier, 2007. 29-51.

People People

1. Audience analysis is the first thing that you should be doing when creating a site. What type of language will they know and use?
   Who will come?
   Why?
   What are their goals?
   Identify users as you speak about them as people not businesses or departments.
2. Gather info about the audience in something like a mini ethnography. Go watch your target audience using the site you are attempting to revamp or others like it. What do they get hung up on? Are they asking questions?
3. List major characteristics for each audience. Content for angry or frustrated people needs to be particularly clear and simple.
4. Gather audience questions, tasks, and stories.
5. Use the info to create personas. Refer to the persona by name rather than "user."
6. Include persona's goals and tasks.
7. Uses your info to create scenarios for the site. All content should be able to be related to a scenario created for your personas.

Ch 3: Starting WEll: Home Pages

Home pages can be content rich, but not wordy at the same time. It is good to have your logo on the homepage, but not your mission statement.

The home page sets the sites tone and personality.

One way to determine your sites personality is to ask yourself what adj. you would want to describe your site.

Be instantly clear on what the site is about as soon as someone clicks.

Should have mostly links and descriptions.

Put most popular forms on the main page and high on the page so you don't have to scroll.

Keep in mind low resolutions screens and users with slow access.

Put "search" near the top of the page

Don't force people to fill out forms before they are granted access to your site.

Write effective links that make sense.

Use the site visitor's words and vocabulary.