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Designing and Writing for online

Is this course for me?

The course is aimed at anyone writing or designing information that will be used online.

"This is just an email to say what a productive and useful day I had working with Justin. He was an inspiration to me and I now feel that we have a very positive way forward with our application that meets all the requirements of the interested parties. It was money well spent."

Documentation Manager October 2005

What will I learn?

Following this course, you will be able to:

work more efficiently by writing and designing your information in a structured and informed way
add value to your information through attention to online features that make information usable
find out what users want and create online information that meets their needs
create online information that users can find, read and understand quickly and easily.

Topics covered

Linear (paper) and hypertext (online) information models	Putting users first
Realising why paper is fundamentally different to online Taking advantage of the power of hypertext	Discovering what your users need Creating a design methodology that puts users first
How do people read from screens?	How do I write for the screen?
Recognising the problems of screens and designing to account for them Formatting and designing pages for comfortable on screen reading	Getting the point across: writing clearly and succinctly Editing content written for paper delivery
Finding information quickly	Page structure
Dividing large volumes of information into discreet pages Providing navigation mechanisms to get users to relevant information quickly	Layering information to avoid information overload Using screen real estate wisely Making pages readable on screen
Techniques for hyperlinking	Indexes and searches
To link or not to link: hyperlinks that help and hyperlinks that hinder Signposting hyperlinks	Why bother with an index? Choosing appropriate meta data and index terms

Course documents

Delegates receive a set of written course notes.

Prerequisites

Familiarity with using online information such as online Help or the World Wide Web is an advantage.

Cost of the Course

The price is dependent on the number of delegates and the degree of customisation required. Contact us for details.

Dates

Further information

Contact us if you would like to know more about how we can help you. If you can, please state the issues you are interested in fixing. We'll respond by email or phone.