Points to ponder while starting your masterpiece

Content is king, no matter what anyone tells you. The best way to commence the page is to write the body text first. Making an outline, either on paper or with your word-processor's outlining programme, is a good idea. Things to bear in mind before doing this are:

• Message, thesis and goal. If visitors to your site only remember one thing, what would it be, which idea, what's the goal, what action do you want then to think?
• What are the obstacles? If you're trying to sell an idea, what must change in people's minds before they accept your ideas? Are you writing a new idea for a hostile audience or preaching to the converted? Do they already agree with you or do they need to have something explained to them?
• Define a problem or benefit, then propose a solution; focus on the benefits on offer to the readers. Think of all the possible objections and answer then, anticipation objections and answering then enhance your credibility. If you're trying to sell something, ask for immediate action, like making a phone call right now etc.
• This is the most important part to good design. Prioritise your ideas; make an information hierarchy. Which is the central, most important idea, which are the lesser parts that will come after it? Which pieces of the writing are really asides (additional pieces of information that will be included in a way, such as smaller text, sidebars etc. to separate them from the top ideas)? This is why an outlining program is a good idea, you can write topics and them move them up and down to change their order. If you don't use one you could always write them on separate small pieces of paper, like a memo pad, then cut them up and rearrange them in new ways.
• Always change as much text as possible into a visual. If you're working with a schedule, then could that information become a table, if it's numerical, could it be some kind of a graph?
• Consider your audience, think of one ideal viewer and write for them.
• Try for essays to be self-contained because the web is rarely linear.



Chunking

At this point you should have your ideas in a hierarchy, either on screen or on the pieces of papers which you've happily littered your floor with. In other words you've organised your piece, and now the next step is to show that organisation with design so that anyone looking at the page will see at a glance the main idea, the way the page develops and the side-points. Even the visuals should be prioritised, with one being dominant; two equally sized visuals will compete for attention.

     People generally thought that largish amounts of text on the web was a no-no, the fact is that people will read any meaningful content that's worthy of their attention; though they generally don't like huge blocks of text. The first thing to do is chunking. To break up all your body text into separate subjects and introduce each one with a subhead. A loose rule of thumb is not to have more than three paragraphs without a subhead break. If you've been rearranging an outline so everything's in the right order, then it's only a matter of taking each group of ideas and deciding where the breaks will go, and giving them a title

     For subheads, use a smaller point size of the font you used for headlines, don't' use a larger or bold version of the body text or there won't be enough contrast to indicate visually that it's separate from the body text. By using the same font as for the headlines, you can have contrast without losing consistency. Some other points to consider when chunking your body with subheads:

• Avoid centering head/subheads; if you flush them left, then the extra white space will draw eyes like a magnet.
• You can 'hang' subheads in the margin for extra white space above and below them, which will make them stand out more.
• Give extra space above the sub-head. This will place it closer to the body which it introduces and keep it further from the text above, to which it isn't linked.
• Strive to fit head/sub-heads on one line, which is how they're more striking.
• Only centre them if the body is centered. Generally a uniform flush left is a better idea.
• Use colour with care as it often makes them harder to read or less noticeable than the body text, which is the opposite of what you wish to achieve with a subhead.
• The first paragraph after a sub-head isn't indented because it came after a title, it's obvious it's a new paragraph.
• Some typefaces have 'heavy' versions, these have been redrawn to have an appearance of heightened 'weight' and are more striking, which will provide contrast with the body.
• Try to have meaningful heads/subheads, even come-ons or pushy ones. Rather than, Uses of Clinical Neurology for Lay-people, You could have, How Psychology can make you Happy.
• Use 'downstyle'. That means, don't capitalise each word other than conjunctives, which is how you were probably taught to write at school. If you only capitalise the first word and proper nouns it's acceptable and can look more effective.
• Never end any type of heading with a full stop as it indicates completion.
• Some fonts have a 'condensed' version. If you use these they have more 'weight' as well as being smaller, meaning there's more white space around them, and remember that white space draws the eye.
• Try to show a benefit in a headline. So rather than, Section Two or A Collection of Driving Test Regulations you could write Pass your test today by understanding the rules! This shows a benefit for reading by relating it to self-interest.
• Emphasise the most important word. So for example, if you have a banner headline, which is Scandals of modern EU politicians, then you could make the word scandal much larger to attract the eye, then the rest of the headline will be read.
• Don't use underline because where it touches the letters it obscures their shape and makes them harder to read.
• Keep any type of heading short and to the point.



Kickers and Blurbs

A kicker is a small phrase above the headline that amplifies its importance and relates it to the self-interest of the reader, greatly increasing the probability that the piece will be read in it's entirety.

     Blurb is similar to a kicker except that it comes after the headline. Use either style but not both, when you've made a choice of which one to use, use it consistently.

Sidebars

     This is a short amount of information that would break the flow of the body text if it were included there, yet it is still relevant enough to be part of the page. An example is the Dummies books about computing. In these, the body text is about computing (explained very simply), and more complex and unessential side-points are placed in sidebars titled nerdy technical stuff. A sidebar can be set aside from the main text by using contrast, such as placing it in a box, a different font or colour, or screening the background a contrasting colour.




Pull Quotes

This is really a magazine technique where a compelling sentence from the body is included and set much larger, almost as a headline, to pull the reader in. It's far more common in print than on the web. If you try them, make sure they are well in the middle of a text box so they aren't confused for a subhead, a different colour may help provide enough contrast. Keep then as short and snappy as possible, they're only quotes to let people know what's in the text and pull them in, they're not the text themselves.




Graphic Accents

These are methods to emphasise or separate text in certain ways, but which aren't themselves text. Like sub-headlines, they are used essentially to show the hierarchy and order of the page. Graphic accents are:


• Reverses. This is when a white headline is printed on a black background to present it more strikingly. This might be done only for the main (banner) headline, to indicate that it is at the top of the hierarchy in your page.
• Screens. Making the text background a different colour generally separates it from the body in the mind of the reader, so this could be for a sidebar or table of contents.
• Horizontal rules and bars which are self-explanatory. Also in this category are page borders. If you put a border around your page, always put the heaviest line at the bottom to 'weight' it.

     Another type of graphic accent is end of story symbols. If you look in magazines, often then very last full-stop (period) of an article is replaced by a symbol. Often it's a black square, but sometimes it's a relevant picture. So if it was an article about alpine skiing, the symbol could be a little mountain. They indicate completion very effectively. If you want to use this they are easy to insert using Word. Some fonts on your computer (if you've installed them) aren't letter fonts at all, they're picture fonts. In word, look at the font dialogue box or character map, or try insert - symbol and look at a font like 'Dingbats', they contain only symbols that can be used as end of story symbols.