Letting Go of the Words
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Letting Go of the Words

Writing Web Content that Works

1st Edition - June 15, 2007

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  • Authors: Janice (Ginny) Redish, Janice (Ginny) Redish
  • eBook ISBN: 9780080555386

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Description

"Redish has done her homework and created a thorough overview of the issues in writing for the Web. Ironically, I must recommend that you read her every word so that you can find out why your customers won't read very many words on your website -- and what to do about it."-- Jakob Nielsen, Principal, Nielsen Norman Group“There are at least twelve billion web pages out there. Twelve billion voices talking, but saying mostly nothing. If just 1% of those pages followed Ginny’s practical, clear advice, the world would be a better place. Fortunately, you can follow her advice for 100% of your own site’s pages, so pick up a copy of Letting Go of the Words and start communicating effectively today.”--Lou Rosenfeld, co-author, Information Architecture for the World Wide WebOn the web, whether on the job or at home, we usually want to grab information and use it quickly. We go to the web to get answers to questions or to complete tasks – to gather information, reading only what we need. We are all too busy to read much on the web.This book helps you write successfully for web users. It offers strategy, process, and tactics for creating or revising content for the web. It helps you plan, organize, write, design, and test web content that will make web users come back again and again to your site.Learn how to create usable and useful content for the web from the master − Ginny Redish. Ginny has taught and mentored hundreds of writers, information designers, and content owners in the principles and secrets of creating web information that is easy to scan, easy to read, and easy to use. This practical, informative book will help anyone creating web content do it better.Features* Clearly-explained guidelines with full color illustrations and examples from actual web sites throughout the book. * Written in easy-to-read style with many "befores" and "afters."* Specific guidelines for web-based press releases, legal notices, and other documents.* Tips on making web content accessible for people with special needs.Janice (Ginny) Redish has been helping clients and colleagues communicate clearly for more than 20 years. For the past ten years, her focus has been helping people create usable and useful web sites. She is co-author of two classic books on usability: A Practical Guide to Usability Testing (with Joseph Dumas), and User and Task Analysis for Interface Design (with JoAnn Hackos), and is the recipient of many awards.

Key Features

* Clearly-explained guidelines with full color illustrations and examples from actual
web sites throughout the book.

* Written in easy-to-read style with many "befores" and "afters."

* Specific guidelines for web-based press releases, legal notices, and other documents.

* Tips on making web content accessible for people with special needs.

Readership

For anyone who writes for the web or does usability testing on web sites, including web designers, information designers, information architects, content managers, technical writers, usability engineers, web application and forms designers.

Table of Contents

  • Foreword

    1 Content! Content! Content!
    2 People! People! People!
    3 Starting Well: Home Pages
    4 Getting There: Pathway Pages
    5 Writing Information, Not Documents
    6 Giving Just the Essential Messages
    7 Designing Web Pages for Ease of Use

    Interlude: The New Life of Press Releases

    8 Tuning Up Your Sentences
    9 Using Lists and Tables
    10 Breaking Up Your Text with Headings

    Interlude: Legal Information Can Be Understandable, Too

    11 Using Illustrations Effectively
    12 Writing Meaningful Links
    13 Getting From First Draft to Final Web Page

    Interlude: Creating An Organic Style Guide

    For More Information -- The Bibliography
    Index

Product details

  • No. of pages: 384
  • Language: English
  • Copyright: © Morgan Kaufmann 2007
  • Published: June 15, 2007
  • Imprint: Morgan Kaufmann
  • eBook ISBN: 9780080555386

About the Authors

Janice (Ginny) Redish

Janice (Ginny) Redish
Janice (Ginny) Redish has been helping clients and colleagues communicate clearly for more than 20 years. For the past ten years, her focus has been helping people create usable and useful web sites.

A linguist by training, Ginny is passionate about understanding how people think, how people read, how people use web sites - and helping clients write web content that meets web users' needs in the ways in which they work.

Ginny loves to teach and mentor - and to practice what she preaches. She turns research into practical guidelines that her clients and students can apply immediately to their web sites.

Ginny's earlier books received rave reviews for being easy to read and easy to use, as well as comprehensive and full of great advice. She is co-author of two classic books on usability:

* A Practical Guide to Usability Testing (with Joseph Dumas)

* User and Task Analysis for Interface Design (with JoAnn Hackos)

She is also the author of the section on writing on www.usability.gov.

Ginny's work and leadership in the usability and plain language communities have earned her numerous awards, including the Rigo Award from the ACM Special Interest Group on the Design of Communication and the Alfred N. Goldsmith Award from the IEEE Professional Communication Society.

Ginny is a Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication and a past member of the Board of Directors of both the Society for Technical Communication and the Usability Professionals' Association.

Affiliations and Expertise

President of Redish and Associates, Inc., Bethesda, MD, USA, acclaimed author, instructor, and consultant

Janice (Ginny) Redish

Janice (Ginny) Redish
Janice (Ginny) Redish has been helping clients and colleagues communicate clearly for more than 20 years. For the past ten years, her focus has been helping people create usable and useful web sites.

A linguist by training, Ginny is passionate about understanding how people think, how people read, how people use web sites - and helping clients write web content that meets web users' needs in the ways in which they work.

Ginny loves to teach and mentor - and to practice what she preaches. She turns research into practical guidelines that her clients and students can apply immediately to their web sites.

Ginny's earlier books received rave reviews for being easy to read and easy to use, as well as comprehensive and full of great advice. She is co-author of two classic books on usability:

* A Practical Guide to Usability Testing (with Joseph Dumas)

* User and Task Analysis for Interface Design (with JoAnn Hackos)

She is also the author of the section on writing on www.usability.gov.

Ginny's work and leadership in the usability and plain language communities have earned her numerous awards, including the Rigo Award from the ACM Special Interest Group on the Design of Communication and the Alfred N. Goldsmith Award from the IEEE Professional Communication Society.

Ginny is a Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication and a past member of the Board of Directors of both the Society for Technical Communication and the Usability Professionals' Association.

Affiliations and Expertise

President of Redish and Associates, Inc., Bethesda, MD, USA, acclaimed author, instructor, and consultant

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