Keep it simple! I'm sure you've heard this advice before. But did you know that this applies to your site's written content as well? Many don't consider written content a design issue. (Client: "Yup, just design a good-looking webpage. and we'll plunk in the text!" I don't think so.) It's a MAJOR part of design, complementing and affecting the visuals, and vice-versa.

The written message needs to be DESIGNED to fit the medium. And the Web is no exception. In fact, the Web is a lot less flexible than, say, a magazine or newspaper. The typical Web user (your prospect) is what I call a "quick-hitter." He needs his info FAST. If he doesn't get it quickly, or it's TOO MUCH TROUBLE to find, he's gone, off to the next resource.

This meant a major rewrite of my site's content. I'm in the "can't shut him up" camp of writers. Often good for books and magazine articles, but the Web? Nope. I lose them. My visitor logs tell me so. So snip...

...and boy, was it tough! Not because I couldn't stomach mangling my creations (sheeesh!), there was just so much info to pack in! But I managed. You will too.

To avoid the hassle I just went through, keep it short from the beginning. I honestly do not know how much text is enough and what is too much. I'm guessing that five screens should be max. NOT five screens full of text -- my designs have a LOT of whitespace -- a user shouldn't need to page down more than five screens to see everything on the page. This measure isn't strict (I've exceeded it), nor is it scientific. It's just an educated GUESS. My future logs will tell me whether I'm guessing right.

For topics with a LOT of information that simply won't fit into five screens, break it up into multiple pages, preferably logical groups, giving users the option of reading just the sections that interest them.

But what if you want them to read the WHOLE thing across multiple pages? Use an old magazine/newspaper trick: break paragraphs in half. End one page with the top half, and start the next with the bottom. Of course, the text needs to communicate that it's only half-finished, that there's more if the user continues on.

If you do use this trick, don't break mid-sentence like they do in print. Annoying. You don't want your users annoyed; too easy to just click you off. Finish the thought, then continue on.

An added benefit from concentrating on keeping it short from the beginning is your writing and thinking will most likely improve! A self-imposed limit forces you to structure and organize your thoughts better than if you wrote under the assumption that you had an unlimited amount of space, an easy and dangerous mistake common on the Web.

There may be ONE SITUATION, however, where you may want a really long webpage, which I'll cover in another e-Factory News article (http://listbot.com/subscribe/efactory).

For now, remember: Keep it simple AND keep it short!