Re: Choosing Key Words for Writing

[Richard Danca <rdanca -at- UIE -dot- COM>]

I have a couple of suggestions for choosing key words for your web
site:

1. Ask your users! If you've conducted usability tests, you probably
got some comments about words and synonyms that either puzzled
people, pleased them or suggested others that were missing. If you
haven't done usability testing (and why not??) you can get similar
information from just *asking* users or, more formally, by holding
focus groups. The key is *not* to use HR folks as users; they're
hardly typical and would likely give you even more technical terms
that wouldn't help users.

2. Analyze your search log. This will clue you in to the words users
actually choose (though you'll find lots of chaff, too).

We've found that what we call "content" links (that lead directly to
information) are far more valuable to users than "category" links
(that lead only to other links).

I think there's stuff about this on our web site: http://www.uie.com

Hope this helps.


P.S., the URL you posted to TECHWR-L is bad (though it works if you
delete the word index): http://users1.ee.net/spage/manual/index.

I took a look at your site. Is there any reason why the lists on the
manual page aren't linked? Also, see our web-site report on the
limited value of graphical links (vs. text-only) and the *negative*
effect of animated graphics on usability.

==================
Richard A. Danca                        User Interface Engineering
mailto:richard -dot- danca -at- uie -dot- com            800 Turnpike St., Suite 101
978-975-4343 978-975-5353 (fax)         North Andover, MA 01845
http://www.uie.com                            USA
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