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- | Check that your content is | + | Check that your content is adequately understood by your target audience. |
=== What Problem This Solves === | === What Problem This Solves === | ||
- | You don't know whether your content is written at the appropriate level for your target audience. | + | You don't know whether your content is written at the appropriate level for your target audience. |
=== When to Use This Pattern === | === When to Use This Pattern === | ||
- | Use this pattern when it's imperative that your users can easily understand your content, e.g. product instructions, health information, government policy change. | + | Use this pattern when: |
+ | |||
+ | #it's imperative that your users can easily understand your content, e.g. product instructions, health information, government policy change, | ||
+ | #the content covers complex topics, | ||
+ | #your audience may have reading difficulties, or | ||
+ | #your content authors are inexperienced. | ||
=== What's The Solution? === | === What's The Solution? === | ||
- | + | Asking your users if they understand your content may not produce accurate results ([http://www.alistapart.com/articles/testing-content/ source]), but there are other methods for estimating readability. | |
- | + | Online tools - such as those by [http://juicystudio.com/services/readability.php Juicy Studios] or [http://www.addedbytes.com/code/readability-score/ Added Bytes] - use reading-level algorithms to automatically score the readability of your content. These give you a useful indication, especially for comparing relative scores across content items (e.g. to identify the potential 'worst'), but shouldn't be relied on for assessing critical content. | |
- | + | A more time-consuming but accurate solution is to perform a small usability test: ask sample users to read your content and then quiz them to test their comprehension. You could even integrate a survey module onto relevant pages to semi-automate this process. | |
- | + | You could also consider a Cloze test, which is an "''assessment consisting of a portion of text with certain words removed, where the participant is asked to replace the missing words''" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloze_test source]). [http://www.alistapart.com/articles/testing-content/ Read more about how to conduct a cloze test for web content]. | |
- | + | === Why Use This Pattern === | |
- | + | ||
- | === | + | |
- | + | We frequently test the features and user experience of a website, but often assume that the content - usually the primary component of a website - is correct. By testing only a small sample of your content, you can quickly adjust your writing style to better meet the needs of your users.<br> | |
- | === Categories<br> === | + | === Categories<br> === |
[[Category:Editorial]] | [[Category:Editorial]] |
Page last modified 17 January 2011 by . Created by: Admin