[Air-l] Two important books on Web design: Content Critical, Web Content Style Guide

[Ken Friedman]

Dear Colleagues,

I want to recommend two new books for whoever is active in designing 
Web sites and intranet. They are being published this month by the 
Financial Times. They are Content Critical and the Web Content Style 
Guide

The authors are experts in Web design and communication. One author, 
Rob Norton, is former executive editor of Fortune Magazine, one of 
the world's largest and best known business magazines. The other is 
Gerry McGovern, one of Ireland's leading experts in Web design and 
interactive media.

To learn more about Content Critical, go to:

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/content_critical.htm

To learn more about Web Content Style Guide, go to

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/web_content_style_guide.htm

I will print selected advance information on these books below.

Our universities, schools and departments are spending -- and wasting 
-- millions of dollars, pounds, kroner, lira, markka, etc., on Web 
sites that do not work. Far too many organizations mount Web sites 
loaded with special effects and fancy images, without attending to 
accessible information, ease of use, or good navigation. Many 
organizations mount Web sites that must be repeatedly redesigned. If 
we can develop and retain key knowledge on basic issues, the future 
investments we make will become a long-term gain.

Content Critical is an important place to start in developing better 
Web sites. I will send a note on the Web Content Style Guide in the 
next post.

I will be reviewing both these books in the December issue of Design 
Research News. The reason I recommend these books before reading them 
completely is simple. I've seen a lot of what will be printed in the 
newsletters of Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton.

Their newsletters are a valuable resource, and I've been looking 
forward to these books. Knowing the quality of Gerry's thinking and 
Rob's, I'm already recommending these books to different lists. I 
view this as a public service. Much of our work today world is 
connected with the Web. Making a better Web means building a better 
world.

If you visit the Web site noted here, you will also have a chance to 
subscribe to a new elist focusing on these issues.

I have been active in Internet research and information design issues 
since the early 1990s. I view the publication of these books as an 
important step in bringing the Web to its fullest potential.

In December, I will publish my evaluation of these books. In the 
meantime, you can learn more about them at no cost by visiting the 
pages listed here. If you want my personal advice, I'd say these 
books are worth the risk of an advance order.

Best regards,

Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Technology and Knowledge Management
Norwegian School of Management

Visiting Professor
Advanced Research Institute
School of Art and Design
Staffordshire University



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Content Critical

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/content_critical.htm

Content Critical

Authors:
Gerry McGovern, Rob Norton

Publisher:
Financial Times Prentice Hall

Publication Date:
October 2001

Content Critical will change the way you think about the World Wide 
Web. It is built upon a simple but profound insight: The Web is a 
medium for publishing content.

The Internet was invented as a communications medium and the Web was 
invented as a publishing solution for content. If part of your job 
involves writing original content, whether that be a technical paper 
for a product, or a marketing pitch for that product, you're part of 
a publishing process.

If you find that you're spending increasing time reading in order to 
help you do your job better, you're directly affected by publishing. 
The modern world runs on content. We're either publishers or 
consumers of it. Mostly, we're both.

Think of your website as a publication and it all begins to make a 
lot of sense. Think of the person who visits your website as a reader 
and your objectives become clearer. Because the Web is not all that 
different from all those other communication tools: print, phone, fax.

Yes, there are differences. Yes, Web publishing has different 
dynamics and rules than, say, print publishing. But the core 
objective is still the same: to communicate with other people.

Content Critical explains both the theory and practice of the Web as 
a publishing medium, drawing from the best and most applicable 
offline publishing practices, and from the best practices of web 
publishing today. It provides in-depth information about reader and 
website analysis, cost-benefit models, and content creation, editing 
and publishing processes.

It includes highly detailed, practical advice about what it takes to 
build a professional, content-oriented website, including 
classification, navigation, search and content layout. It will show 
you how to organize your publishing team and how to create a Web 
publishing strategy.

If you work for an organization and part of your job is to write for 
that organization you should read this book. If part of your job is 
to edit the written work of others and then publish that work on an 
intranet or Internet website, then you should read this book.

If your job is to help your organization create, edit and publish Web 
content more efficiently, then you should read this book. If you do 
any of the above you're involved in publishing whether you know it or 
not, and Content Critical will help you do your job more effectively.

Content Critical:

Table of contents

Chapter 1: Everything you know about publishing is wrong
Chapter 2: The benefits and costs of content
Chapter 3: The reader is king
Chapter 4: The need for content standards
Chapter 5: Creating content
Chapter 6: Editing Content
Chapter 7: The four pillars of information architecture
Chapter 8: Navigation critical
Chapter 9: Content layout and design
Chapter 10: Special topics in web publishing
Chapter 11: The publishing team
Chapter 12: Five stage publishing strategy approach



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Web Content Style Guide

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/web_content_style_guide.htm

The Web Content Style Guide

Authors:
Gerry McGovern, Rob Norton, Catherine O'Dowd

Publisher:
Financial Times Prentice Hall

Publication Date:
October 2001

  Good writing is the exception rather than the rule on the Web. One 
reason for this is simply that good writing is hard to do. Another is 
that many of the people who've been involved with the Web from the 
beginning have been slow to realize that writing is a very big part 
of what the online experience is about.

While the Web has important non-textual uses, most people who use it 
spend an overwhelming amount of their online time reading words on a 
page. It's not an accident that we call them webpages. It follows 
that quality content-well written, well edited-is essential for the 
success of any website.

In addition to quality content, the design of websites must 
facilitate finding and reading that content. Web design is about 
content design. It's about laying out content so that it can be 
easily read. It's about organizing content so that it can be easily 
navigated and searched.

The number-one design principle for the Web is simplicity. Quality 
web design should be all about making life easier for the reader to 
find content, and then making it easy for them to read that content.

The Web Content Style Guide aims to codify the rules and standards 
that make for effective web writing. It also aims to give 
nontechnical guidance to all those involved in designing and running 
a website, from the chief executive officer to the junior writer. It 
examines topics from accessibility to animations, from fonts to 
forms, from information architecture to intranets, from navigation to 
newsgroups, from search to style guides.

Every entry is written from the perspective that a website must get 
the right content to the reader as quickly as possible, in the most 
readable manner. The fonts entry, for example, discusses the font 
sizes and types that work best onscreen.

The Web Content Style Guide covers some of the same ground as the 
offline style and usage guides, but is tailored specifically for 
online managers, writers, and editors.

Grammar and style issues of particular relevance to the Web that it 
focuses on include: the key differences between American and British 
English; how the Web accentuates plagiarism; what sort of dash looks 
best onscreen; the difference between data, content, information, and 
knowledge; and when and how to date documents.

If you are involved in a website, whether as a manager, designer, 
writer, or editor, The Web Content Style Guide is essential for you. 
It is packed with examples, and is written in a clear, concise, and 
friendly manner.

Based on the authors' 40-plus collective years experience in 
traditional publishing, and 15 in designing content-rich websites, it 
is always practical. It champions best-practices in web content 
writing and design, and is not afraid to kill off a few Internet 
myths along the way.