Sharing my UX-pertise

A friend recently asked for my advice on their personal, professional website. The experience allowed me to reflect on all that I have learned about digital communication. I thought I would share my notes below. Perhaps they will help with a digital project you are working on. 

I've got a couple of notes on web design and also on editing content for a website. I've then added a list of tools I find really helpful when writing web content.

This photo of a tree during sunset in autumn doesn't illustrate my points at all.
I just like the image.

Notes on the design

More and more, I  think "good digital design" means "design which is accessible to all". Web content should be clear and easy to understand. It should also be accessible to people who have a disability which makes reading or looking at a screen hard. 

There's a heap of advice about making the web more accessible. I follow some basic principles with my own content:

• Use high contrast between text and the background (black text on a white background). This is good for accessibility.
• Use heading levels (H1, H2, H3 etc) for your page title and subtitles. Using proper headings, rather than simply bolding text, allows people with visual impairments or other disabilities to navigate through a page.
• Make sure the size of headings decreases. So the first heading on a page (H1) is larger than H@ headings, which are larger than H3 headings, and so on. 
• Include alt text on images (and links, if possible). Again, this makes your website easier for people who use a screen reader.

Editing web content

• Try to keep words, sentences and paragraphs short. People read digital content differently to how they read a book, so it's best to use simple language. 
• Break pages up with headings. And remember to 'nest' headings properly (so the page title is a Heading 1, with H2s underneath that and H3s underneath that... etc).
• Put lists of things in a bullet point format. This helps users to scan the page, rather than read every word.
• Put the verb near the front of the sentence.
• Add "next steps" or "calls-to-action" as a button or a call out box.
• Use first-person pronouns (I/my) wherever possible. I personally prefer reading (and writing) websites written in the first person. Although I know that this is a personal choice.
• Think of my notes as suggestions, there's no need to apply all of them. 

Again, this is just a recent photo which I like.
I don't think it illustrates my point.

Useful tools

The digital team at gov.uk are legendary! They developed 10 principles of digital content, which are now an industry standard. They're simple, common-sense rules. They help me to think about what's important when I create new web content.

I use an online tool called Hemingway to help me edit and write web content. Hemingway returns the US School 'Grade' level of copy you pasted into it. It's best to keep the reading age of web content as low as possible. People want to quickly glean information from a website. The easier you can make it for a user to get that information, the more likely they are to stay on the site or remember you.

Any more ideas?

What are your top tips for terrific content? Do you have more tools to share, which help you design, develop or distribute content?