There's more than one doorway to our websites. People come in through the garage, basement, window, chimney — well, you get the picture. Colleges are learning that their website user experience doesn't always start on their homepage. Sometimes the first web content people see is a blog post or a student handbook PDF or an inquiry form. Or is it? Actually, the user … [Read more...] about Web User Experience Starts Here (And So Does Your Content)
web writing
Editorial Style for Inline Links
The power of the web is its ability to connect, or link, people with ideas and information. Inline links — links within a body of text — enhance usability and comprehension by enabling readers to find valuable information, made relevant by the surrounding content. However, links are not made valuable by "click here." Without an editorial plan for using … [Read more...] about Editorial Style for Inline Links
Information Is Not Inherently Useful or Usable
A common perception in higher ed is that the role of content owners is to simply publish information. If it's on the website, they’ve done their job. How many times have you been told, "Well, did you look on our website? It's there"? As part of a collection of humorous cartoons on content challenges, Bruce Ryan of 4 Syllables highlights the importance of content … [Read more...] about Information Is Not Inherently Useful or Usable
Higher Ed Takeaways From Confab 2011: The Content Strategy Conference
Last week Meet Content attended Confab: The Content Strategy Conference. We joined web content professionals from around the world to talk content and eat cake. (Seriously, our host Brain Traffic was not kidding when they said the days of content and cake were coming — the subsequent sugar highs were not just metaphorical.) To our delight, higher ed was well … [Read more...] about Higher Ed Takeaways From Confab 2011: The Content Strategy Conference
Web Writing Guidelines for Content Contributors
As web professionals, we owe a lot to our content contributors. Your college website has tons of content, and no one person can do it all. The more you enable content contributors to write for your site (supported, of course, by a thorough editorial process), the closer you will be to your shared goal of creating great content. Here are some web writing guidelines to help make … [Read more...] about Web Writing Guidelines for Content Contributors