Hints for Improving your Webcontent A workshop for content providers

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Hints for Improving your Web-contentA workshop
for content providers

• Part 1
• UNESCO Bangkok
• Conference Room A, 5th floor

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Part I Introduction How do people use the
web? Identifying your audience Writing a
headline Writing a lead Applying the inverted
pyramid
Course Outline
Part II Improving presentation Creating
hyperlinks Integrating visuals, etc. Keeping
the website alive Practice session
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Learning objectives

• To be able to produce texts that are readable,
  clear, accessible, attractive and adapted to the
  Web.
• In particular to be able to produce the following
  for the web
• "News "Events.
• Project descriptions, outcomes and other
  information.

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To be able to

• Adapt text to the audience
• Write a headline
• Write a lead ("short description")
• Present useful information
• Create hyperlinks
• Integrate visuals
• Keep the website alive

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Introduction How people use the Web
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Users scan contents

• 80 of their time, internet users scan the web
  page content rather than reading it word by word

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Reading Comfort

• Reading on-screen is 25 slower than reading on
  paper.

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Users only see part of the page content
First screen
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Many visitors come from search engines
To help visitors find your website Make sure
that the keywords relating to the topic of your
website are repeated frequently in the text.
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Example of a web page
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The headline five times more read than body text.
The lead looked at by more than 90 of visitors.
Paragraph blocks group ideas
Keywords in bold
Visuals with captions.
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What do users look at most?

• headlines and hyperlinks

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Bulleted lists help readers scan

• You can use lists more often on a web page than
  on a printed paper page.
• Use numbered lists when the order of entries is
  important.
• Use unnumbered lists whenever the sequence of the
  entries is not important.
• Limit the number of items in a single list to no
  more than nine.
• Generally, lists should have no more than two
  levels.

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Example Using lists
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Spacing is important

• Leave white space
• Keep paragraphs short

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Chapter 1 Adapt to the audience
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Rule 1 Adapt to the audience

• Before writing anything, be sure to have answered
  the following questions
• Who is the target audience?
• How will the content be used?
• Then
• Use simple words that everyone easily
  understands.
• Provide only useful information.

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Who is your target audience?

• Researchers / scientists / academics
• Media / journalists
• Teachers / educators / trainers
• Public managers / government officials
• Development actors (NGOs, UN,)
• Students / young people
• Internal staff
• ?

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Watch out for jargon

• Dont assume that your audience knows all the
  jargon.
• Spell out acronyms the first time they appear on
  the page (after that you can use the acronym).
  For example information and communication
  technologies (ICT)

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ExampleWhat is wrong with this statement?What
is the author assuming? 

• MOST is a UNESCO programme that promotes
  international, comparative and policy-relevant
  research on contemporary social transformations
  and issues of global importance.

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Do we have to remove all jargon?

• As we go deeper into the website, it is normal
  to reach more technical information that contains
  jargon.
• However, on the main pages ? limit jargon where
  possible.

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Provide all useful information

• Include
• Important facts
• Links to useful documents
• Links to related web pages and websites.

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ExampleWhat is wrong with this page?
Bad Example
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Example Solution
Bad Example
No links are provided to other parts of the
website
No links are provided to useful documents.
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Provide all useful information
Good Example
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Chapter 2 Write a headline
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Rule 2 Write a Headline

• The function of a headline to allow the reader
  to quickly understand whats inside the article.
• Concise (between 4 and 12 words max 100
  characters)
• Explicit (giving the reader a good insight of the
  content)
• Understandable (avoid acronyms or jargon)
• Catchy (if explicit)
• With keywords (useful for search engine
  indexation)
• Uppercase for first word of sentence
• No quotation marks

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Long and obscure headlines
IYP2005 UNESCO ICTP SPIE - STO Optics
Teaching Regional Workshop Implementation of
Resolution 1483 on Iraq Koïchiro Matsuura says
UNESCO stands ready to assume fully the special
responsibilities assigned to it by its mandate,
particularly in the fields of education and
culture CBEC, SIUT and UNESCO Joint Conference
and Workshop on Bioethics Education Training and
Professional Development of Teachers and Other
Facilitators for Effective Use of ICTs in
Improving Teaching and Learning
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Short, concise and explicit headlines
Angkor Wat World Heritage site under
threat Equipping remote schools in Bhutan with
ICT New group to promote girls education in
South Asia Why gender in education is
important Sowing the Seeds of Peace in the
Mekong River Basin
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Exercise 1 Make the Headline Shorter
The Director-General has decided to send a
technical mission to the Old City of Jerusalem in
order to assess the situation concerning the work
on the access to the al-Haram al-Sharif On
Friday 23 February 2007, the Director-General of
UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, announced his decision
for sending a technical mission to the Old City
of Jerusalem, which is inscribed on UNESCO's
World Heritage List and on the World Heritage in
Danger List.
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Exercise 1 Solution
The Director-General has decided to send a
technical mission to the Old City of Jerusalem in
order to assess the situation concerning the work
on the access to the al-Haram al-Sharif On
Friday 23 February 2007, the Director-General of
UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, announced his decision
for sending a technical mission to the Old City
of Jerusalem, which is inscribed on UNESCO's
World Heritage List and on the World Heritage in
Danger List.
UNESCO sends mission to Jerusalem to assess World
Heritage in Danger site
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Exercise 2 Improve the Headline
Booklet prepared by NIED on "HIV and AIDS
prevention, Education through Art"    A poster
competition has been organized in Namibian
schools (2003) in the framework of the "fight HIV
not those living with it" campaign within the
education sector. The booklet presented here
contains about thirty posters from young
participants.  Author National Institute for
Education Development - Namibia
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Exercise 2 solution
Booklet prepared by NIED on "HIV and AIDS
prevention, Education through Art"
Youth use art to tackle HIV/AIDS
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Chapter 3 Write a lead
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Rule 3 Write a lead

• The function of a lead to sum up the gist of
  the information contained in the article.
• Limit the lead to one short paragraph
• Be concise (between 30 to 60 words max 400
  characters)
• Follow the five W rule H in order to answer all
  essential questions
• No weblinks inside the lead

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The five "Ws and one H

• Basic questions required in order to provide the
  necessary information
• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How

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The lead contains all five "W"
UNESCO signs agreement with Thailand on managing
HIV/AIDS in schools On 14 April 2005, UNESCOs
Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura and Mr
Chaturon Chaisang, Minister of Education of
Thailand, signed a project plan for enhancing the
development of leadership skills in the
management of HIV/AIDS in secondary schools in
Thailand.
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Keep it Short and Simple (KISS) Limit the lead to
only one paragraph
BEFORE
AFTER
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Exercise 3Whats wrong with this lead?
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Exercise 3Solution
Too long and detailed.
Does not contain all five "W"
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Exercise 4 Make the Lead Shorter!
Fight against Racism, Discrimination and
Xenophobia The fight against racism,
discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance is at
the heart of UNESCO's mandate. UNESCO, through
research, contributes to identifying effective
responses to the obstacles hampering the full
exercise of human rights extreme nationalism,
ideologies of intolerance and new forms of
discrimination arising from technological and
scientific progress. UNESCO directs its efforts
towards drafting international instruments that
outlined standard principles, concepts and
universal criteria to support the fight against
racism and discrimination. To further advance the
fight against racism and discrimination, UNESCO
also launched various operational programmes and
projects.
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Exercise 4 Solution
Fight against Racism, Discrimination and
Xenophobia The fight against racism,
discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance is at
the heart of UNESCO's mandate. Through research,
UNESCO addresses human rights issues such as
extreme nationalism and technological
discrimination. A number of international tools
and operational programmes have been developed to
fight racism.
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Exercise 5 What is wrong with this text?
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Solution Exercise 5
Boring headline
Lead is too long.
Lead does not contain the 5 "W"
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Chapter 4 The body text
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Structure your content following the inverted
pyramid
Lead contains most of the 5 W
Interesting facts and colourful details are
found in the body text
Least important information is found here, at the
bottom of the story
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Exercise 6 Apply inverted pyramid rule
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Exercise 6 Solution
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Limit page length
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Readability and legibility

• Readability is the measure of how easily your
  text can be read and understood.
• Legibility indicates that the text can be read,
  that the letters and words can be recognized.
  This relates to font size and type.
• Source http//agcomwww.tamu.edu
• To boost your content impact
• Use simple words and style
• Check for correct spelling and grammar
• http//www.unescobkk.org/index.php?idpublication
  _procedures
• Improve the layout

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Rule 4 Body text

• The function of the body text is to explain
  things, to develop reasoning, to provide some
  examples and to emphasize some details.
• Apply the inverted pyramid rule
• Use short sentences (15 to 20 words)
• Use simple words and style (avoid passive voice,
  long phrases, acronyms and jargon)
• Divide information into paragraphs
• Limit each paragraph to just one idea, ideally
  found in the first sentence.
• Put keywords in bold and use bulleted lists
  (without exaggeration)
• Limit the volume of each page (between 500 and
  4000 characters)

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Keep it Short and Simple
Bad Example
The CATIA programme decided to adopt the MMTK
format for all its training materials, where
appropriate, with the objective of facilitating
sharing, taking into consideration the local
trainers who need workshop-ready, mix and match,
open acces materials that can be used and adapted
in an effortless manner.
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Keep it Short and Simple
Good Example
The CATIA programme has adopted the Multimedia
Training Kit for its training materials. The aim
is to facilitate sharing with emphasis on easy
adaptation for local trainers.
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Improvements

• 1 sentence ? 2 sentences
• Acronyms ? explained
• Spelling mistakes ? corrected
• Style ? strongly simplified
• Passive voice ? active voice
• Paraphrasing, wordiness, superfluous phrasing ?
  removed

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Thanks for your attention and participation!