• A colleague once described the Web site as like looking at a billboard through binoculars. You can't see it all at once, and you have to concentrate.
• The resolution is much lower than in print, and you can't easily tilt the screen or adjust your distance.
• Light is projected into your eye rather than being a diffused reflection.
• There is rarely a single linear path through a Web site.

Now they're pulling information from our Web sites - getting what they want when they want it. Like cats, our visitors go where they want when they want.

• examine shared contexts - are you assuming too much understanding?
• what are they seeking when they visit you? have you designed the site around that?
• what do they already know or think about your product and your organization?

• Web users have the attention span of a five-year-old; if they get confused they will leave
• knowledge isn't power - structured access to knowledge is
• your job is to report, interpret, annotate, and link; hypertext is a powerful tool for doing that well

• updates, additions, maintenance are critical
• don't use other people's writing as-is unless it fits
• test thoroughly

• it keeps the reader engaged
• but only if you design a dialogue, not a monologue
• reward each action with new, relevant information
• test how it works

• design it for online - you can't just shovel it over from print
• watch the length -- it has to be about 50% shorter online unless it's a "destination page"
• use PLAIN language -- because it works better online
• chunk it, design it as hypertext
• learn how to write link text that doesn't break the flow
• give up control to the viewer
• understand that nearly everyone scans instead of reading
• structure for multiple audience(s) - hypertext helps you do that
• write with a human touch -- the impersonal Web needs that
• design in measurement and feedback

• the writer can't stay aloof from the details of presentation
• don't be bullied by management or designers or techies
• use graphics wisely and not too much
• remember you don't have much font control
• use titles, headings and white space to improve readability
• think hard about how to let visitors print the page if they want to
• use links wisely -- to add value to your site, not to send visitors away.

• provide a brief introduction and orientation on each page so any page can stand alone
• check all the links, ideally with a link-checker tool
• indicate information status when necessary (new, not new but recently reviewed and confirmed, etc.)
• write links so viewer can tell where they lead
• provide meaningful titles