December 2011
22 posts
Language is an interface
It’s a complex, highly-functional interface that takes years to learn, that’s constantly updated, and that requires an enormous mental workload. Language communicates and facilitates the use of mental tools – ideas, models, processes, emotions and other information.
Scatter lots of paper around
It lets people know you’re serious.
Tailor your presentation to your audience
Presenting content in the same format to both the marketing person who approves it and the developer who puts it in the website is probably a bad idea. If you have a tool that makes you think otherwise, please for the love of god tell me what it is.
Instructions are no place for marketing buzzwords
Instructions: “Take your stinking buzzwords off me, you damn dirty ape!”
There are three purposes of content: education,...
Keep the purpose of your content in mind when you work with it. For example, content that’s meant to give someone instructions doesn’t need to be funny and it doesn’t need to sell. It needs to help a human being get something done. If it’s hard to use for that, nothing else matters. STAY FOCUSED.
Content is meant to be used
That means it needs to be usable. Which is why content strategy is user experience design.
Test because it's free, easy and makes you legit
The most importpant part of user experience design is understanding your user. If you haven’t watched at least one person try to use your design, you’re missing the point.
Create the right environment, and what you want...
I’m still working on this one. I’ll probably never really understand it, but it might be the single most important rule of content.
Contractions are OK
Using “does not” instead of “doesn’t” doesn’t make something more formal or more readable. It just makes you sound pretentious and kind of illiterate.
No content without information
If your content doesn’t convey any information, delete it.
(Unless it’s for entertainment only. In which case, if it doesn’t entertain, delete it.)
