Web site design and development continues to become more sophisticated. An important part of this maturity originates with well-laid-out and well-written content. Ginny Redish is a world-renowned expert on information design and how to produce clear writing in plain language for the web. All of the invaluable information that she shared in the first edition is included with numerous new examples. New information on content strategy for web sites, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media make this once again the only book you need to own to optimize your writing for the web. It offers new material on content strategy, search engine optimization, and social media. It provides lots of new and updated examples. It offers more emphasis on new hardware like tablets, iPads, and iPhones.
Letting Go of the Words
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"This comprehensive volume on the language of web design provides practical advice for developers on the effective use of text and language in the creation of highly usable websites."--Reference and Research Book News, February 2013 Praise from the first edition: "Redish has done her homework and created a thorough overview of the issues in writing for the Web. Ironically, I must recommend that you read her every word so that you can find out why your customers won't read very many words on your website -- and what to do about it."--Jakob Nielsen, Principal, Nielsen Norman Group "There are at least twelve billion web pages out there. Twelve billion voices talking, but saying mostly nothing. If just 1% of those pages followed Ginny's practical, clear advice, the world would be a better place. Fortunately, you can follow her advice for 100% of your own site's pages, so pick up a copy of Letting Go of the Words and start communicating effectively today."--Lou Rosenfeld, co-author, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web "If you're looking for a concise, comprehensive, and visual guide containing hundreds of practical online writing tips for personal branding success will give you everything needed to take your writing to the next level in Ginny Redish's Letting Go of the Words.This could be the most important Holiday Gift book you give-or receive-this year."--Personal Branding Blog, November 2012 "If you only read one book about online writing and design, get Ginny Redish's Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works. It's a book that can do more good for more websites than any other book I can recommend at this time.You read, then you look. You read a little more, and you look again. Suddenly, it all makes sense!"--Published and Profitable, December 2012
About the Author
Janice (Ginny) Redish has been helping clients and colleagues communicate clearly for more than 20 years. For the past ten years, her focus has been helping people create usable and useful web sites. A linguist by training, Ginny is passionate about understanding how people think, how people read, how people use web sites - and helping clients write web content that meets web users' needs in the ways in which they work. Ginny loves to teach and mentor - and to practice what she preaches. She turns research into practical guidelines that her clients and students can apply immediately to their web sites. Ginny's earlier books received rave reviews for being easy to read and easy to use, as well as comprehensive and full of great advice. She is co-author of two classic books on usability: * A Practical Guide to Usability Testing (with Joseph Dumas) * User and Task Analysis for Interface Design (with JoAnn Hackos) She is also the author of the section on writing on www.usability.gov. Ginny's work and leadership in the usability and plain language communities have earned her numerous awards, including the Rigo Award from the ACM Special Interest Group on the Design of Communication and the Alfred N. Goldsmith Award from the IEEE Professional Communication Society. Ginny is a Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication and a past member of the Board of Directors of both the Society for Technical Communication and the Usability Professionals' Association.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By Jayarfer
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Found this book so useful and full of ideas, some obvious, many not so. Helps with the understanding of what makes web site visitors engage, what turns them off and how to basically 'do it properly'. A constant source of reference.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars
8 reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
FORGET ABOUT IT!!
6 Sep 2012
By COSMIC TRAVELER
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Are you waking up at night worrying about strategy and tactics? If you are, then this book is for you! Author Janice (Ginny) Redish has done an outstanding job of writing a second edition of a book on how to help you have great conversations through your web site, mobile app, social media, and whatever future innovations encourage interactions between you and others.
Author Redish, begins by showing you how to have good conversations through your web site. In addition, the author delves into why planning your content is critical for apps, web sites, individual web topics, blogs, social media messages, and everything you write. She then discusses how to integrate content and design from the beginning. The author then, shows you how to consider the entire site. She continues by looking at the size of your site; if it is large enough, then you may need pathway pages between the home page and the information people want. In addition, the author tackles four important guidelines: Think information, not document; divide your content thoughtfully; consider how much to put on one web page; and, use PDFs sparingly and only for good reasons.
She then continues to focus on not hogging the conversation within a single web topic. Next, the author reminds you how to combine labels with more information. Then, she shows you how to choose a good heading style: questions, statement, verb phrases, etc. The author continues by looking at how to write the paragraphs, sentences, and words of your web content. In addition, she encourages you to use numbered lists for instructions as much as possible. Next, the author warns that you should not make program or product names links by themselves. She then describes what makes illustrations work well, or not work well. The author continues by showing you how to negotiate successful reviews and edits. Finally, she shows you how to do usability testing of the content.
This most excellent book will help you create great content. Perhaps more importantly, this book shows you how to meet your business goals by satisfying your site visitors' conversations through usability testing.
Author Redish, begins by showing you how to have good conversations through your web site. In addition, the author delves into why planning your content is critical for apps, web sites, individual web topics, blogs, social media messages, and everything you write. She then discusses how to integrate content and design from the beginning. The author then, shows you how to consider the entire site. She continues by looking at the size of your site; if it is large enough, then you may need pathway pages between the home page and the information people want. In addition, the author tackles four important guidelines: Think information, not document; divide your content thoughtfully; consider how much to put on one web page; and, use PDFs sparingly and only for good reasons.
She then continues to focus on not hogging the conversation within a single web topic. Next, the author reminds you how to combine labels with more information. Then, she shows you how to choose a good heading style: questions, statement, verb phrases, etc. The author continues by looking at how to write the paragraphs, sentences, and words of your web content. In addition, she encourages you to use numbered lists for instructions as much as possible. Next, the author warns that you should not make program or product names links by themselves. She then describes what makes illustrations work well, or not work well. The author continues by showing you how to negotiate successful reviews and edits. Finally, she shows you how to do usability testing of the content.
This most excellent book will help you create great content. Perhaps more importantly, this book shows you how to meet your business goals by satisfying your site visitors' conversations through usability testing.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Indispensable Resource!
21 Sep 2012
By Chris F. Willis
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I have been a huge fan of Ginny's Letting Go of the Words since the first edition as a one-stop resource for my eLearning content development team. We even led an internal workshop around the content of the book, as it is jam packed with best practices for writing for online viewers. This new edition builds on the first with updated research and examples, and is even more needed and welcome.
We find many of the new generation workforce woefully unaware of what our firm considers the most basic rules of writing - understanding the needs of the reader, using active voice, creating a hierarchy of useful headings, paring down the amount of content to fit the delivery medium ... This is especially true of new team members who come to us through a technical or graphic design track, but even degreed writers can be missing key foundational online writing skills. This book is an indispensable tool for filling in those gaps, and level-setting the entire team.
Whether you are tasked with writing for web sites, marketing, eLearning, or business portals, you would be hard pressed to find a more complete and useful primer.
We find many of the new generation workforce woefully unaware of what our firm considers the most basic rules of writing - understanding the needs of the reader, using active voice, creating a hierarchy of useful headings, paring down the amount of content to fit the delivery medium ... This is especially true of new team members who come to us through a technical or graphic design track, but even degreed writers can be missing key foundational online writing skills. This book is an indispensable tool for filling in those gaps, and level-setting the entire team.
Whether you are tasked with writing for web sites, marketing, eLearning, or business portals, you would be hard pressed to find a more complete and useful primer.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Textbook
17 May 2013
By Daniel Calhoun
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I used this textbook for my web publishing class in college.
It is a really informative book, and the material is laid out well.
Easy to read.
It is a really informative book, and the material is laid out well.
Easy to read.
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4.8 out of 5 stars
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