Editing Web sites

by Jean Hollis Weber

Presented to:

Australian Society for Technical Communication (NSW) Conference, 30-31 October 1998

Terminology

Web site
a group of related HTML files

Web page
one HTML file (plus its associated image files, if any)

Home page (default, index)
the first page seen when accessing a Web site

Audience & purpose of site

In addition to the usual audience analysis questions, ask:

Audience’s purpose in visiting the site?
How will audience use the material?

Read and interact online
Download
Print

Editing the content

Use a style guide
Copy edit as usual
Edit for standard technical writing principles, including:

User-centred writing
Unambiguous, meaningful titles and headings
Break paragraphs into lists

Write newspaper style to assist skimming

Put the most important information first
Summarise the main points
Link to details

Use definition list style:
a short title (with link) followed by a sentence or two of summary

Home page

Must load quickly
Must provide

Something of value to the audience
Not just pretty pictures

Must clearly indicate

What’s on the site
How to find it

Editing for usability

Navigation
Hyperlinks
Page length and organisation
Finding information on the site
Accessibility
Common problems

Navigation

Is the site organised in a way that is

Meaningful to the audience
Not just to the organisation?

Some questions to ask:

What are the users’ most likely questions?
Are the answers easy to find?
Are the navigation labels useful?

Is it always clear to users

Where they are?
How to get back to where they came from?
How to get somewhere else on the site?

Are the navigation aids

Easy to locate?
Clearly and meaningfully labeled?

Hyperlinks

Are the links helpful, logical, trivial, confusing?
Is it clear where the links go and what the reader will find there?
Does summary information tell readers which links they need?

Navigation to-do list

Include a table of contents for the site
Use unambiguous headings, meaningful out of context
To make skimming easier, put links in a list rather than sentences
Put a navigation bar on each page

Page length & organisation

Advantages of long pages

Easier to skim, print, download, and search
Faster to scroll and follow internal links than to retrieve another page

Advantages of short pages

Pages load faster
Get only the information you want

Finding information on the site

In addition to navigation aids:

Include a table of contents (with links)
Provide a traditional index (with links)
Provide a search facility (with links)

Accessibility issues

Hardware and software used by target audience

Desktop, laptop, palmtop machines?
Latest versions or older?
Windows, DOS, Mac, other?
Monitor size and resolution?
Which browser?
Modem or other access method?
Speed of internet link?

Any visual disabilities?

Using print-to-voice readers?
Need large font size?
Colour blind?

Any relevant physical disabilities?

Accessibility to-do list

Use layout that non-graphical browsers and text readers can interpret
Avoid browser-specific features
Use ALT tags on graphics
Offer more than one view of the site, if you use tables or frames
Reduce size of graphics files and use tags that reduce page loading time

Testing for accessibility

Test the site using different

Browsers
Screen resolutions
Number of colours
Font sizes (set by user in browser)

Test site on slower modem link

Does text load before graphics?
Does page take too long to display?

Test with graphics turned off

Has any content been lost?
Have ALT tags been used for graphics?

Common problems

Some content is not visible
Text overlaps other text or graphics
Graphics are off side of screen
Graphics load very slowly
Columns don’t line up
Colour combinations are unreadable
Text hard to read on background
Titles, descriptions, author information missing or wrong

Can audience find the site?

To improve the use of search engines:

Use META tags for keywords, title, author, descripton
Include unambiguous keywords in titles and headings within the text
First 100 words must make a good description

Editing tips

Use a site map that shows all pages (and preferably the links between them)
Print pages to examine for consistency and to mark up corrections
View and test everything online
Know enough HTML to examine the source when needed
Insert editorial comments in the source
<!– xxxxxxxxx –>
Edit keywords in a similar way to editing an index
Check the title line on the browser
Test for accessibility

Layout recommendations

Use standard HTML and let the browser interpret it
Do not specify colours for links
Do not specify font sizes
Do not use tags to achieve an effect
Use indents with care, to avoid narrow “pillars” of text
Don’t use spaces or tabs to line up text; most browsers will ignore them
Minimise horizontal scrolling by

Sizing figures to fit within 800 pixels
Reworking tables to fit within 800 pixels

Follow recommendations for accessibility

Resources

List of resources

Get browsers, validation tools etc from CDs on magazines such as Australian Personal Computer or internet.au

Last updated 24 November 1998

Technical Editors’ Eyrie