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...most message-senders mistakenly want to tell the story in a way that is logical and meaningful to them...
My 80-year-old stepfather got a new computer last week.
In the past, he's had my hand-me-down computer. Now his is newer than
what I'm using. He wanted to be up to date so that he could have the
best Internet access. Cool.
Wanting Internet access is one
thing; making a new computer functional is another. So I helped him set
up the hardware, connect the correct cables, then load up software,
passwords and access numbers. Once again, I've been exposed to
successes and failures in providing instructions, and these days, most
guidance is presented on the computer screen instead of on paper.
Still, the same principle of effective communication applies: Know what
action your audience is being asked to do. I saw some truly inviting
and clear tutorials that took advantage of animation, audio and text.
They were a success because they communicated, not because they were
flashy. Other attempts at guidance were less than beneficial on the
screen and would have been just as confusing in a paper manual.
Sender? Or receiver?
Some succeeded where others fail right at the starting gate. Most
messages-senders want to tell the story in a way that is logical and
meaningful to them. Maybe it's chronological or filled with rationale.
Either of those approaches is likely to include details the receiver
doesn't need – and won't take time with, especially online.
Clear writing will always require talented authors, but the online
medium shouts for structure as much as creativity. We deal with site
maps, coding systems, navigation requirements, and other structured
approaches to the online exchange of information. Can writing fit into
this mold?
Yes, according to Cass Brady, who teaches the Information Mapping
Method. Understanding the audience starts with identifying the message
– from the perspective of the audience – as falling into a defined type
of information. All information, she says, falls into one of these
categories:
1. Principle: what should be done or what is true in light of the evidence.
2. Structure: what something looks like or what something's parts are.
3. Concept: what something is or why something is what it is.
4. Fact: a statement, assumed to be true.
5. Procedure: how to do something or how to make a decision.
6. Process: what happens or how something works.
Information Mapping is a highly researched method showing that when
different information types are presented separately, say on a separate
screen or at least separate paragraphs, receivers better retain the
information. Invariably, if the information creator is writing from his
own perspective, information types intermingle; what should be done is
fused with facts that connect to why things are the way they are.
What's related?
Common sense, right? Put related items together, of course. But if you
visit any random sample of Web pages, you'll see this simply doesn't
happen regularly. Sure, you may have to take only a few seconds to read
the text to see the connection in the ideas. Many Web writers still
expect Web readers to read. "The don't. They scan," Brady says. Online
readers are really scanners who skip around.
And, of course,
onscreen communication isn't just about words. Pictures that tell part
of the story work; graphic after-thoughts don't. As Brady explains, you
again need to know your audience, or at least how people in general
learn. Sixty-five percent of the population learns by seeing, she says,
versus only 10 percent that learn by hearing or reading. The remainder
learns by doing but can fall back to learning by seeing. I have a
suspicion that print communicators make up a bulk of that 10 percent
who prefer to read and never really consider the fact that other people
don't like to read as much as they do. Just recognizing and acting on
that fact may make any good writer an online communicator. (And, no, I
would never expect this column to work online as it does printed in a
magazine.)
Pictures or words?
On a few of the set-up process my stepfather and I undertook with his
new computer, icons were attractive and crisp but not clarifying. On
others, icons were really just terms that had no particular meaning to
us. Again, what is clear to the creator may not be to the audience.
Done right online, charts or drawings or table sometimes can
effectively replace process completely.
Integrated graphics
are just one of the research-based principles that Information Mapping
espouses, along with other principles such as grouping information,
excluding irrelevant items, labeling each unit and writing at a level
of detail that makes information easily accessible to the audience.
It's a formula for online writing that, even while adhering to the
rules you learned in formal journalism or communication training,
almost makes it possible to write effectively in your sleep.
The point is to keep online readers from snoozing, which can happen
when they're faced with content prepared by people who think old
formulas for writing still work.
© 1999, Sheri Rosen. This article first appeared in Communication World, December 1999/January 2000, published by the International Association of Business Communicators.
Method (www.infomap.com). Understanding the audience starts with
identifying the message – from the perspective of the audience – as
falling into a defined type of information. All information, she says,
falls into one of these categories: |
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