1. 2010 Spring Conference Telling Your Story

2. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites Candi Harrison – former Web Manager, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development People come to your website to complete a taskPeople come to your website to complete a task oThey know what they want before they arrive oDon’t come to look around, read press releases, see how cool you are Want to satisfy your audience? Help them complete that taskWant to satisfy your audience? Help them complete that task oMake it easy to find oMake it easy to use oMake it easy to succeed oEspecially the tasks used most often (“top tasks”) Use 10 best practices to serve your citizens wellUse 10 best practices to serve your citizens well

3. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites 1.Design/write so audience immediately knows what the site is about, who it’s for, where they need to go oPeople decide if you have what they want in 7 seconds  Based on first screen only oFeature most-used tasks in top left quadrant  People scan top left to bottom right oDo not use large, rotating “feature” boxes to present top tasks  Readers will not wait for the cycle

4. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites 2. Organize content in topics the audience understands oOrganize website according to audience thinking – not your org structure  Usability tests show web users prefer topics oMinimize the number of topics  Amazon sells millions of products – uses 12 topics

5. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites 3. Make navigation easy to find, understand, and use oStudies show web readers look for nav on the left  Top nav can be confused with advertising and ignored oUse words the audience uses oMake navigation consistent from page to page 4. Format content for the web reader oUse headers and sub-headers, bullets, and lists to make it easy to scan, find what you want oUse dark font color against a light background oUse a sans serif font to make it easy to read on the screen

6. Serif vs. Sans Serif Typface Sans serif font Sans serif font Arial Arial Calibri Calibri Tahoma Tahoma Verdana Verdana Serif font: Serif font: Garamond Garamond Times New Roman Times New Roman

7. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites 5. Organize content to make it easy for audience to complete tasks oPut most important information at the top oMake steps clear oMake content brief and to the point oAnticipate questions

8. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites 6. Write content in plain language oUse words audience understands and searches for oIf the general public is the/a target audience, write content at 4th grade reading level oMake content conversational  Use first (“I,” “we,” “us”) and second (“you”) person oUse active verbs (“start here,” “read this”) oOmit unnecessary words (e.g. “welcome,” “our mission is…,” “this website will…”) oResource: plainlanguage.gov

9. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites 7. Make links clear and useful oLink text tells readers what they will find  No “click here” or “more” oLayer content appropriately (not too deep) oNo broken links oPick most useful links  You do the work – don’t make your readers analyze/choose from a long list of links

10. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites 8. Use graphics only if they are essential to communicate critical information oWhy? Graphics can waste time (customers hate that!)  Divert attention from task completion  Lengthen download on dial-up, cell phones oNo gratuitous graphics  No graphics just because they’re “cute” or “cool” oNo photos of agency executives on the home page  Put them on the “about us” page oMake sure graphics aid skimming – no “eye-stoppers”

11. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites 9. Put contact information in plain sight oInclude address, phone number(s), and email address(es) oCan be linked from “contact us” 10. Show that content is current oShow “date of last review or update” or “content current as of…” in plain sight Note: most of these principles apply to social media, too!

12. 10 Best Practices for Government Websites Resources Websites o oUsability.gov o oPlainlanguage.gov o oWebcontent.gov Newsletters o oGerry McGovern’s newsletter: gerrymcgovern.com o oPew Internet and American Life newsletter: pewinternet.org Books o oKiller Web Content – Gerry McGovern o oLetting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content That Works - Janice (Ginny) Redish Blogs o oCandi on Content (candioncontent.blogspot.com) o oOndotgov (ondotgov.com)