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 (1) 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 (2) 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.