2010 Spring Conference Telling Your Story

1. 2010 Spring ConferenceTelling Your Story

2. 10 Best Practices for Government WebsitesCandi Harrison – former Web Manager, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development • People come to your website to complete a task • They know what they want before they arrive • Don’t come to look around, read press releases, see how cool you are • Want to satisfy your audience? Help them complete that task • Make it easy to find • Make it easy to use • Make it easy to succeed • Especially the tasks used most often (“top tasks”) • Use 10 best practices to serve your citizens well

3. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites • Design/write so audience immediately knows what the site is about, who it’s for, where they need to go • People decide if you have what they want in 7 seconds • Based on first screen only • Feature most-used tasks in top left quadrant • People scan top left to bottom right • Do not use large, rotating “feature” boxes to present top tasks • Readers will not wait for the cycle

4. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites 2. Organize content in topics the audience understands • Organize website according to audience thinking – not your org structure • Usability tests show web users prefer topics • Minimize the number of topics • Amazon sells millions of products – uses 12 topics

5. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites 3. Make navigation easy to find, understand, and use • Studies show web readers look for nav on the left • Top nav can be confused with advertising and ignored • Use words the audience uses • Make navigation consistent from page to page 4. Format content for the web reader • Use headers and sub-headers, bullets, and lists to make it easy to scan, find what you want • Use dark font color against a light background • Use a sans serif font to make it easy to read on the screen

6. Serif vs. Sans Serif Typface • Sans serif font • Arial • Calibri • Tahoma • Verdana • Serif font: • Garamond • Times New Roman

7. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites 5. Organize content to make it easy for audience to complete tasks • Put most important information at the top • Make steps clear • Make content brief and to the point • Anticipate questions

8. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites 6. Write content in plain language • Use words audience understands and searches for • If the general public is the/a target audience, write content at 4th grade reading level • Make content conversational • Use first (“I,” “we,” “us”) and second (“you”) person • Use active verbs (“start here,” “read this”) • Omit unnecessary words (e.g. “welcome,” “our mission is…,” “this website will…”) • Resource: plainlanguage.gov

9. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites 7. Make links clear and useful • Link text tells readers what they will find • No “click here” or “more” • Layer content appropriately (not too deep) • No broken links • Pick most useful links • You do the work – don’t make your readers analyze/choose from a long list of links

10. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites 8. Use graphics only if they are essential to communicate critical information • Why? Graphics can waste time (customers hate that!) • Divert attention from task completion • Lengthen download on dial-up, cell phones • No gratuitous graphics • No graphics just because they’re “cute” or “cool” • No photos of agency executives on the home page • Put them on the “about us” page • Make sure graphics aid skimming – no “eye-stoppers”

11. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites 9. Put contact information in plain sight • Include address, phone number(s), and email address(es) • Can be linked from “contact us” 10. Show that content is current • Show “date of last review or update” or “content current as of…” in plain sight Note: most of these principles apply to social media, too!

12. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites Resources • Websites • Usability.gov • Plainlanguage.gov • Webcontent.gov • Newsletters • Gerry McGovern’s newsletter: gerrymcgovern.com • Pew Internet and American Life newsletter: pewinternet.org • Books • Killer Web Content – Gerry McGovern • Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content That Works - Janice (Ginny) Redish • Blogs • Candi on Content (candioncontent.blogspot.com) • Ondotgov (ondotgov.com)