We commonly read that the sum of human knowledge increases massively every year. No matter how it’s measured—by count of words, memes, Web sites discovered by Google, or piles of unread books in my office—a problem lurks within these numbers. While new discoveries, inventions, assertions, and prognostications lead the human parade into the future, the [...]
Category Archives: Framing content in print and on the Web
Mining Knowledge From the Pre-Digital Era
June 11, 2008Also posted in Technologies for publications and Web content Leave a comment
Web Site Visitors Want It NOW
May 29, 2008It’s not your imagination. The world is moving faster and people are less patient. I switched from dial-up Internet access to a broadband connection only four years ago, and I’ve already forgotten what it was like to wait for Web pages to load. Now, when pages don’t load instantly, I’m irritated and tempted to move [...]
Also posted in Design, Industry trends 1 Comment
When they err, newspapers run corrections. (Sometimes, that is, for some errors). Book publishers insert errata sheets in textbooks and correct egregious errors in subsequent editions. But the Web, still in its adolescence, has no agreed-upon standard for corrections. There’s controversy over whether to quietly make necessary changes or to update and indicate what’s been [...]
Also posted in Management of a publications enterprise, Writing and Editing 1 Comment
Why They Call It Web Surfing
May 11, 2008Web content managers: Do you wonder whether it makes sense to manicure your splash pages? Choose every word with care? Well, the jury is in. It makes enormous sense. Web design consultants have long advocated brevity. Many words make for glazed-over eyes and short visits. But now a scientifically reliable study “Not Quite the Average: [...]
Also posted in Design Leave a comment
How to Get a Teenager’s Attention
May 7, 2008I spend months at a time traveling the world. I have backpacked Europe, Northern and Southern Africa, across Asia on a trek from Beijing to Cairo, and most recently around South America’s Southern Cone up to Peru. As a result of my travels, I get speaking engagements on my wanderings, and such venues have included [...]
Also posted in Audience research and strategic planning Leave a comment
Parallelism
April 16, 2008Magnificent Publications is often asked to create publications that present data clearly and effectively. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be discussing some of the classic guidelines on the subject from a leading authority on data presentation, Edward Tufte. “Parallelism is a stylistic arrangement in which similar syntactic patterns repeat, thus allowing reader or listener [...]
More About Telling a Story with Data
April 12, 2008Karen Sheff, MS, a data manager and biostatistician with the Indian Health Service, gave a talk at a recent IHS conference. Her specific topic was measuring diabetes and obesity, but the principles apply whenever you use data to tell a story. The first post about her talk appeared yesterday. Here are some tips for effective [...]
Also posted in Design Leave a comment
Telling Your Story with Data
April 10, 2008Karen Sheff, MS, a data manager and biostatistician with the Indian Health Service, spoke at a recent IHS conference. Her specific topic was measuring diabetes and obesity, but the principles apply whenever you use data to tell a story. There are many ways to communicate the messages revealed by data. Three types of data presentation [...]
Also posted in Design Leave a comment
We Sure Could Use a Good Whatchacallit
March 28, 2008It’s spring cleaning time, and here are a few phrases you’ll never miss: “out-of-the-box thinkers,” “we sell solutions,” and “take a few minutes to learn more about us.” But without buzz words, what would managers say? Tate Linden recommends they say what they know. (This drew a round of hear-hears from his recent audience, 50 [...]
Still a Breakthrough Away
March 12, 2008Here’s good news: TV viewing time is down to an average of 14.5 hours per week, from 21 hours in 1990. Here’s more, although it’s old news if you’re the parent of a teen-ager or a 20-something: Internet usage now averages 17.5 hours per week. That’s hardly news to the Barack Obama campaign staff either. [...]
Also posted in Industry trends Leave a comment