Web Content - Text, Graphics
and Animation
The look and feel of your Web site conveys a message about
you and your organization. Present text and imagery that carry clear
information about your products and services.
Text and Copy Writing for Web
Internet visitors who view your site as readily accessible and easy
to understand will stay long enuogh to read about your products and services.
If you include information that useful and frequently updated, they will
come back again and again. Observe these guidelines when writing text
copy for the Web.
- Visitors like summaries and the inverted pyramid style
Present summaries and conclusions up front. Allow viewers to read
details and background information later if interested.
- Text should be scannable
Scanning saves time. Use headings, bold or
highlighted text, bulleted lists, graphics, captions, topic sentences,
and tables of contents to enhance scanning.
- Writing should be simple and informal in style
Make it quick and easy to read. Visitors want to get information quickly, without having to read every word
- Text should be concise
Break long pages into shorter, multiple pages to avoid excessive
scrolling and overwhelmingly long pages.
- Users like well-organized sites
Make important information easy to find.
- Credibility is an important
Qualify your sources and yourself. Motivation and trustworthiness are
important on the Web.
- Outbound links can increase credibility
Hypertext is well-liked, but too many links can be distracting.
- Humor should be used with caution
Know your audience, use humor to make a point.
- Graphics and text should complement one another
Graphics that add nothing are a distraction and waste of time.
- top of page - Graphics, Animation and Streaming Media
Using graphics
Branding
Your organization's logo should appear in a consistent location on every
page. We can optimize your logo for the Web, taken from your business
card or letterhead, or we can design something new that conveys your
organization's identity.
Enhancing Page Layout and Information
Graphic images can make Web pages pleasing to look at, enhance the
visual organization and credibility of information. Visitors like fast
loading graphics and pages. They also prefer a choice to download slower,
complex graphics. Provide a small, thumbnail preview of large graphics
with a hyperlink to view an enlarged version in a separate window.
Avoid clutter
- Visitors avoid graphics that look like advertising.
- Artwork different from the look and feel of the site looks messy.
- Graphics for decoration can distract or confuse your message.
Animation and Flash
Animation that illustrates a concept or explains
a complex action can quickly get your point across and reduce the
amount of text on a page. Brief, explanatory text accompanying animation
greatly
improves the visitor's understanding. User-controlled animation,
with stop, start and pause, allows viewers to control their experience.
Although animation
is often time consuming to produce, the extra
benefit of animated graphics to illustrate a point can make your
site, and
your business, memorable. Avoid using animation just to draw
visitor's attention. It soon becomes an annoying distraction.
Flash is a specific form of animation designed especially for the
Web. It produces a detailed look unlike that of standard Web images,
with more motion and graphic sublety. Done correctly, Flash will download
without
wait times and produce an interactive experience for your customers.
Streaming Media
Your Web site can offer audio or video on demand. Save time and postage
by directing customers to your Web site instead of mailing music demos
CDs. We can convert CDs and video to stream from the Interent.
- top of page -
|
  |
Web
Site Packages
For more information on Web site plan features,
visit our section on Web Site Package Plans.
|
 |
|