The document discusses how to develop effective web content by focusing on the user experience. It notes that while people do read online, they are impatient and want information quickly. To address this, content needs to be concise, use clear headings and bullets, and be broken into chunks. An excellent user experience allows users to easily find and understand needed information with few clicks. This can be achieved through user-centric design and intuitive interfaces with uncluttered, clear content. Writers, designers and programmers need to collaborate by focusing on user needs and discussing content requirements, platform issues, and formatting. Effective web content relies on common sense, putting oneself in the user's shoes, and writing clearly rather than for literary excellence. Overly focusing

1. Cracking the Code of
Web Content
DevelopmentJason M. Rubin
Senior Writer, Libretto Inc.
August 18, 2013

2. Misconception
• Nobody reads anymore

3. BULLSHIT!

4. You read that, didn’t you?

5. People do read, but…
• They are impatient
• They are task oriented
• They don’t want to read online
• They want to be spoon-fed the information
they seek

6. Implications
People will read what they’re looking for, but
will first browse to find it.
•Content must be crisp, clear, to the point
•Subheads and bullets serve as beacons
•Copy should be chunked

7. The Inverted Pyramid

8. Who makes a website?
• Writers  Content
• Designers  Look & feel
• Programmers  Functionality

9. What does it add up to?
Content
+ Look & feel
+ Functionality
USER EXPERIENCE
•Excellent user experience = The ability for
users to quickly locate, understand, and act on
the information they need.

10. How to achieve excellent user
experience?
User-centric architecture
•Fewest possible clicks to information
•Easy, intuitive access to the next level of information or
interaction
Intuitive user interface
•Uncluttered design that guides the user’s choices
•Limit the bells and whistles
Clear, concise content

11. How can writers, designers, and
programmers help each other?
1. Be on the same team.
2. Focus on the client’s needs, goals, deadline, and budget.
3. Talk frequently.
4. Deliver excellent work.
5. Designers and writers: work on establishing realistic word
counts, and discuss hierarchies of content.
Designers and programmers: work on issues relating to
platform, hosting, and media/animation assets and
requirements.
Programmers and writers: discuss formatting of text links
(with “link to” URLs if available).

12. Let’s crack the code!

13. There isn’t one.
• Use common sense
• Put yourself in your visitors’ shoes
• A website is not the place for literary
excellence – however, writing clearly and
concisely is an uncommon skill
• Do your job

14. One more misconception
• SEO is essential

15. The problem with SEO
• You can tell SEO-infused copy by the number
of times a particular phrase (such as “SEO-
infused copy”) appears in a web page. Any
phrase that is repeated intact multiple times
is likely to be an example of SEO-infused
copy. Such phrases are there not to deliver
information but because someone paid a lot
of money to an SEO “expert” who told them
to infuse their copy with SEO-infused copy.

16. Examples
• Monotype
http://www.monotype.com/
• Kavli Institute for Brain Science
http://kavli.columbia.edu/
• MIT Mech E
http://meche.mit.edu/
• MIT CSAIL
http://www.csail.mit.edu/csailspotlights/feature6

17. Thank you!