Welcome back. Last month, I made the point that when writing for the Web, it is best to present articles in chunks, providing upfront an overall summary of the article that includes a series of hyperlinks leading to each chunk. In this EWA, I want to give you some advice on how to “chunk out” a story—decide what parts should have individual hyperlinks. This is the fourth consecutive EWA I’ve written in partnership with Jeff Herrington. And, by the way, neither of us is chunky.
--Chuck Lustig, owner, ExcitingWriting Communications

(Writing for the Web-4)

Delivering online content in long, narrative screens is a big no-no! You don’t want to make anyone scroll through more than a screen and a half of content.

How do you go about chunking your sweet morsels? You have several options:

1. Organize content around the reason people are visiting your Web site.

Companies like Whirlpool and Ford Motor Company know people come to their Web sites to learn about the products they have to offer. So, it makes sense that their sites' fundamental architecture is built around product groups. For the same reason, a bank like Washington Mutual, or a consulting group such as Booz, Allen, Hamilton, divides its content along the primary services it offers clients. On the other hand, a startup technology company might list its technology, product offerings, executive bios and venture-capital firms.

2. Organize content by geography.

Sometimes, organizing your content by geography makes sense. For example, a utility company may provide a map with links for locating the nearest customer service center. If they just had text links to all the centers listed on one screen, it would take forever to locate the one nearest you.

Detroit Edison sped up the search process for its customers by providing a map of its service territory, divided by county. You just click on your county and up pops the information for the nearest centers. Much faster and, therefore, Web-friendly.

3. Site user groups

Let's say the people who use your Web site cut across several classifications. You might chunk your content based on who is reading it.

Johns Hopkins Hospitals’ Web site first asks you whether you are a nurse, student, patient, media member or physician; it then transfers you to content tailored just for you.

A company in Houston that specializes in the legal aspects of inventions first asks if you are an inventor, venture capitalist, patent attorney, etc., before doing the same thing.

4. Tasks users perform with the help of your content

This is the most sophisticated organizational approach of all. When people come to your site, it's because they need to do something with the data they find on your site. Organize your content around what they are trying to do, and your site will be amazingly intuitive.

The Economic Development arm of the Alberta, Canada, government for some time had content organized by the province’s top industries—Tourism, Petroleum Exploration, Lumber Processing, etc. But after talking to site users, the savvy managers there reorganized the content along categories that reflected the goals readers had after visiting the site—Starting a Business in Alberta, Exporting To/From Alberta, etc.

Such an approach means you must talk with users of your site and ask what they are trying to accomplish that brings them to your site for information. Organize content based on what they are trying to accomplish, and your site users will return again and again.

There are other ways to organize content that Jeff Herrington discusses in his workshops. As long as you organize content so that it is convenient to the way YOUR SITES' USERS approach it rather than the way YOU think about it, you will have a site that is valuable and useable.

Jeff Herrington is president of Jeff Herrington Communications, a Dallas-based training and consulting firm. If you think the content editors in your organization could benefit from a seminar on how to write more effective print or intranet/Web content, contact Jeff at: jeffherrington@earthlink.net, 214.948.7954 or http://www.jeffherrington.com


Chuck Lustig owns Exciting Writing Communications—persuasive writing that turns heads, touches hearts and changes minds—and builds sales! For virtually every kind of writing, including articles, Web content, white papers, annual reports and proposals, remember: If the writing is exciting, it's ExcitingWriting! Contact Chuck Lustig at:
chuckiel@airmail.net, 972-867-7799 or http://www.marketnet.com/lustig

Email: clustig@excitingwriting.com

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