I was about to say "we've known that for yonks!" and accuse nielson of recycling ancient material, but then I noticed the date ;)
There's a certain relationship between web copy composition & layout and that of direct mail letters, although the two are far from identical. This has sparked some "interesting" discussions over the dinner table between me (in "information architect" mode) and H (in "marketeer" mode)....
Yeah, well the fact it's still true now is a sign that it is worth heeding - it wasn't just relevant then.
I can imagine such discussions. It's of particular interest to me as I have recently had to digest some particularly unpaletable marketese when trying to dig through to the information I needed. Caused me much mental indigestion.
There's a fair amount of good stuff on useit.com (http://www.useit.com). Between that and A List Apart (http://www.alistapart.com) you can find a fair bunch of handy information (although A List Apart's current design bugs me somewhat).
As an example, here's a good example of a well thought out article on web content writing (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/zombiecopy).
If you want to know more about this kind of thing, you could do a lot worse than to pick up a book called "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug. In fact, I could do with picking a copy up myself, as mine (aka: my employers copy) seems to have walked from the office (aka: been stolen back by the library) at some point.
I, too, was going to mention the date of the article - it seems slightly incongrous to find a link to a 2006 conference at the foot of a eight year old page - was there nothing else to add in the interim?
Whilst, obviously, a lot of the findings are still valid, technology, and user awareness has probably improved a great deal since that point in time (1997), and as such I wonder whether there are other factors that could determine how people absorb information.
I don't think pop-ups are worth mentioning, do you?
The other one is flash. Flash is of course graphical, but it requires the user to read at the advertisement's speed, which can switch people off.
I guess this is about information dissemination rather than marketing. True the two overlap to some considerable extent, but I normally switch off quite quickly when I get a whiff of marketing.
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azekeil
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Date: 2006-02-13 01:05 pm (UTC)There's a certain relationship between web copy composition & layout and that of direct mail letters, although the two are far from identical. This has sparked some "interesting" discussions over the dinner table between me (in "information architect" mode) and H (in "marketeer" mode)....
no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 01:10 pm (UTC)I can imagine such discussions. It's of particular interest to me as I have recently had to digest some particularly unpaletable marketese when trying to dig through to the information I needed. Caused me much mental indigestion.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 01:24 pm (UTC)As an example, here's a good example of a well thought out article on web content writing (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/zombiecopy).
If you want to know more about this kind of thing, you could do a lot worse than to pick up a book called "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug. In fact, I could do with picking a copy up myself, as mine (aka: my employers copy) seems to have walked from the office (aka: been stolen back by the library) at some point.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 01:42 pm (UTC)Whilst, obviously, a lot of the findings are still valid, technology, and user awareness has probably improved a great deal since that point in time (1997), and as such I wonder whether there are other factors that could determine how people absorb information.
For example, it doesn't mention pop-ups :-)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 02:44 pm (UTC)The other one is flash. Flash is of course graphical, but it requires the user to read at the advertisement's speed, which can switch people off.
I guess this is about information dissemination rather than marketing. True the two overlap to some considerable extent, but I normally switch off quite quickly when I get a whiff of marketing.