Usability Tips for Content Strategists

Here are some articles published in 2015 from Nielsen Norman Group that you might find helpful as a Content Strategist:

(to test your usability knowledge, take their user-experience quiz!)

1. Page Parking: Millennials’ Multi-Tab Mania

Ask my husband and he’ll tell you, I’m a multi-tab maniac. So are most of my co-workers in this field. Are we just being “millennial,” “power users,” or both?

As a content strategist, the importance of understanding user behavior in regards to browser tabs helps me:

• Remember to always ensure any hyperlinks I add to copy opens in a new browser
• Provide better direction to clients on the importance of web copy in browser tabs, especially when targeting power users or Millennials
• Backup my IA decisions regarding breadcrumbs and navigational indicators that involve clear and concise copy
• Dive deeper into website analytics and what page visit durations can or can’t tell me
• Consider measuring the extent of page parking to audit a site’s existing content and whether it is enticing or not delivering results users want
• Give the rest of my team more duties =P

2. Don’t force Users to Register Before They Can Buy

Whether I’m suggesting user flow for a website redesign, ideating particular web forms, or writing web copy, articles like this are handy to keep best practices at the forefront of web design projects.

Surprisingly, a lot of website out there still require user registration to make a purchase or don’t present the option well.

3. Overuse of Overlays: How to Avoid Misusing Lightboxes

You ever go to a site for the first time and after 2 seconds an overlay pops up saying something like, “blah blah, enter your email here….” Me? Yes, and I always say.. “No thanks, not reading it, clicking the close button because I didn’t come here to be interrupted…please let me see the web page or article I came to view.”

Having a background in marketing, getting someone’s email this way is tempting.

But, as a user, I’ve been so frustrated by them. Overlays are terrible when they’re at the wrong place, wrong time, or simply overdone.

4. No More Pogo Sticking: Protect Users from Wasted Clicks

For copywriters, this is useful in providing solutions for problems that require content creation, user-orientated language, and clearer, more concise descriptions.

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