Letting Go of the Words (2007), by Ginny Redish, puts forward an idea that many readers will eagerly embrace: think of writing as you would a conversation. Anticipate the reader’s questions as you craft your content. Redish explains, If you think of the web as conversation, you’ll realize that much of your content is meant to answer the questions that people come with. you do … more »

In my previous post (“Less Text, Please”), I argued that users want shorter texts. I also explained how social media and Internet sites have possibly rewired our brains to incline us toward shorter content — according to some, our gnat-like attention spans can only consume a few short paragraphs before tapping out. The Onion has a great parody of how a single block of uninterrupted … more »

Yesterday I had a meeting with some managers about a series of quick reference guides that I had been preparing. If you remember, much of my callout post referred to a strategy about callout design. It was the same project. (The team actually went with bubble callouts rather than my minimalist callouts, but that’s another story.) During the meeting, as the team looked at the … more »

In the unfolding saga of inline links within posts and the decline in readability that these links bring about, Adriel Hampton’s post helped me persuade me more to this idea. Hamptom quotes from Nicholas Carr’s book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing To Our Brains. Carr writes, (In a 2001 study) one group read (a short story) in a traditional linear-text format; they’d read … more »

In this video, I talk with Whitney Quesenbery and Caroline Jarrett about the feasibility of removing links embedded directly within paragraphs — which Kathryn Summers and Ginny Redish describe as “exit points” that confuse and disorient low-literacy readers.

Google recently released Sidewiki, a new feature in the Google toolbar that allows you to add comments in a pop-out sidebar that appears beside every page on the web. It’s not a typical wiki — you can’t edit what other people write. You can only add another comment about the page.

In a recent User Interface Engineering Brainsparks podcast, Jared Spool interviews Ginny Redish about her book, [amazon-product type="text" text="Letting Go of the Words: Writing as Conversation"]0123694868[/amazon-product], as it applies to interface design. This podcast was one of the best I’ve listened to all week. In the podcast, Ginny explains how your content should be like the answer to a user’s questions. Not styled as an … more »

This week I returned from the annual STC Summit in Atlanta. Every year is always a series of adventures at these conferences. I’d never been to Atlanta before. I arrived a day early, because I was originally scheduled to give a workshop on blogging, but it was canceled due to lack of participants. Attendance at the STC Summit overall was down by about 35%. I … more »

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download MP3 (to download, right-click and select Save Target As) Length: 8 min. Ginny Redish has just written a new book, Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works. I had a chance to meet up with Ginny at the STC Summit and interviewed her briefly about her new book. Redish told me,  “Every use of … more »