11 Untitled

Some cuteness is good, but a little goes a long way and it will put some people off. “Submit” makes sense, “Get in there” slows me down to think about is that what I want to do, and I might not like being slowed down. Women may not like being called dude. I’m a guy and when I hear something like “Dude…” I think the writer is talking about himself not me, because he doesn’t even know who I am. Your mileage varies obviously.

Interesting language and phrasing will grab some people and turn others off. Know your intended audience. Is the writing for a site that will be visiting often or once in a while?

Good article in that offers a point of view, but it is not general. The title is correct though—Learn to write.

posted at 08:35 pm on May 9, 2006 by First NotBlank

12 Right on target.

User experience is not just about the visual experience. Great article. Spot on. ‘nuff said.

posted at 02:10 am on May 10, 2006 by Mike Johnston

13 Depends

I love the article…I agree with you 85%. I have been making sites for clients that defiently need help with content, and I’m cool with that because i truly agree that text IS interface, and essential to user experience.
BUT, for instance, my newest client is in the medical field.
and this client has very little content, yet they want great rank with search engines. This project is now long overdue, and it is way overdue, all because he has not delivered much of any text or content.

In this case, and with many other diff business you cannot help with any writing or content. I would not dare begin to think i can write anything about his field.
It’s impossible at times to create content or write copy for your clients. It’s not always professional, in my opinion.
I also think its important that a client feels that there is something of theirs in their websites.

While as designers we need to learn to write as you say, we shouldn’t have to go to medical school to make a website for someone in the medical field. We should be creating solutions to their marketing needs, and this CAN be done without having to change careers.

posted at 02:31 am on May 10, 2006 by Brian Arbelaez

14 Untitled

Good article! I agree wholeheartedly with the concepts, but for designers (like me) who don’t feel qualified to also offer services as a writer would it perhaps be smarter to have a network of web writers who were fantastic at writing but could also match thier style to the tone of your client’s site. Writers who could work with you to keep the momementum of the user experience going forward to the desired end (buying a product or joining a newsletter, etc)?

Perhaps the web designers role should not be so much writing the content as it is mapping it out – choosing what will go where and in what format to maximise readability, but leaving the actual writing to a professional. On that note does anyone know of a site or forum where designers can get in touch with web writers?

posted at 03:18 am on May 10, 2006 by Harmony Steel

15 Mental Text Block

Good article, and I tend to agree. It’s a mental block we need to over come. All to often a client will supply source material with minimal or at best inadequate text. Which is the perfect opportunity to take the incentiive. Designers should be pro-active in the sites they build. Not all clients will allow this, but they tend to be the ones that don’t trust your sense of judgement, while other clients will rely on input. The later of course is more rewarding.

posted at 09:09 am on May 10, 2006 by Ricky Cox

16 What about hiring a writer?

I love the article except for its premise that writing should become part of the designer’s job.

Isn’t writing a writer’s job? Writers write and designers design. Ideally they do it together (they do, don’t they?) I thought the article was going to call clients to pay more attention to their choice of writer they commission a new site, or encourage design agencies to use writers who are sympathetic with their design objecives.

posted at 12:09 pm on May 10, 2006 by Steven Hart

17 That would help

Valid points, I find trying to get content from clients slightly harder then trying to get blood from a stone.

Still we have a copy writer at work now who writes for our sites which is a welcome and useful addition and one which far more companies should consider.

posted at 01:06 pm on May 10, 2006 by Tony Goff

18 Quality of writing

Isn’t writing a writer’s job? Writers write and designers design. Ideally they do it together (they do, don’t they?)

If the client is going all out and getting a fully paid-for site, yes. But in many cases, especially for smaller businesses, they might write the copy themselves, or take some standard boiler-plate from their printed materials. If you want to do a good job, rather than just the basic minimum that they have paid you for, you have to recognise when the content is either badly written, or written wrong for the web.

If your writing and grammar skills are up to the job, offer to re-hash what they’ve written – if they aren’t, you need to build up some contacts of people who can, and in this case, you might have to charge a small fee as it’s not you doing the work.

At the end of the day, do you want to be associated with a website where the text is ungrammatical, sloppy or full of interminable long-winded paragraphs? Because that’s what can happen if you just let them write the text. Other potential clients won’t care that it looks beautiful and functions like a dream, and that someone else wrote the bits that aren’t so great – they will see a website that credits you as the designer, and they won’t be impressed.

posted at 03:12 pm on May 10, 2006 by Stephen Down

19 May also apply to project managers, etc.

I enjoyed the article. I don’t believe, however, that this is a one-to-one problem. The problem isn’t that the Designer isn’t writing copy and should; the problem is that someone IS writing copy who shouldn’t, because it could stand to be improved.

That someone could be anybody, even the client! And in my experience, the process has ingrained that role. I wish I was at liberty to change several aspects of that process in my job, not just that one, but I’m not.

So, we often live with drab and boring copy that’s SAFE, and businesslike, and (my favorite) “professional.” Derek’s point still holds, the way I understand it for myself – treat the writing of a site with the respect that it deserves, and if necessary, attack it with a specialist the way you would colors/layout/code.

If your designer can write like that (and you’re not going to find out how, by the way, in Strunk and White), bonus. But there are writers like that hidden behind every team role.

I know, project much?, but I liked it. And Derek, no wonder your cat is grumpy – you’ve got two chihuahuas. That’d make me grumpy, even if I weren’t a cat.

posted at 03:18 pm on May 10, 2006 by John Dunagan

20 okay, but what next...

Overall, this article was a necessary wake up call, but to close with the suggestion that readers should go “Buy … a copy of Strunk and White” takes us backward (decades even, to 1957 when what was Strunk’s 1918 book became Strunk and White’s), not forward. And just taking a class can just make things worse, depending on the teacher and textbook. Instead, readers need a comprehensive listing of up-to-date resources, online and in print. For example, I’d recommend Martha Kolln’s Rhetorical Grammar. It’s aimed at undergraduate writing courses, but it provides a different (descriptive not prescriptive like S and W) framework that works wonders for understanding everything from syntax to punctuation to word choice. Kolln’s book—especially the opening chapters on how sentences simply fit together—changed my writing and the writing of students I’ve taught over the years.

Strunk and White ain’t all bad—it was even made into a musical recently. But it’s an old branch on a tree that’s grown far taller, broader and greener than it was in 1918 or even 1957.

posted at 03:38 pm on May 10, 2006 by Joseph Tate