Felicitas Betzl Online Marketing News » Usability

Letting Go of the Words – Book Review

Feli — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:13:51 +0000

Since it is a very Scottish Saturday here in not so sunny Barcelona, I finally get round to writing the book review of “Letting go of the words – Writing web content that works” by Janice (Ginny) Redish.

Having carried out a number of web copywriting courses over the years and also adviced and written content for clients, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of what is important when compiling web content. Surprisingly the book still had a few insights, which I think would be valuable for anyone working in the internet industry or who is responsible for website content.

Redish, who is also an usability expert, explains all stages of preparing, writing and structuring content in detail, referring to many useful resources and websites to find out more about certain topics, such as accessibilty and usability issues. The book is divided into 13 chapters, each focusing on topics such as how to understand your web audience, getting to grips with your home and pathway pages, what to consider when designing a page, how to best write the content and integrate lists, tables, headings and how to write meaningful link text and compile a style guide.

Every chapter has “before” and “after” examples, outlining problems of certain pages and what was changed to get their purpose across, whilst being reminded of usability and accessibility factors.

In overall a great book whether you are a seasoned web professional or just starting out on a smaller scale in-House project. I recommend this book highly and will certainly keep it handy as a reference at work.

Bye Bye Dog Digital

Feli — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:51:01 +0000

After almost 3 months of juggling 2 jobs (or more like 1 1/2), I have finally handed over my responsibilities, as SEO Manager at Dog Digital to Richard Shove, a talented, like-minded SEO. I´m glad that I could pass my clients confidently over, not something I´ve always achieved in the past. SEOs can be very protective over their clients, as over the course of a project strong relationships are built.

I´m quite sad, it´s almost an end of an era, however, I just need to look out of the window where even in October the sun still shines. Yep, Barcelona has it´s benefits for sure! So whilst trying to get my head round the Spanish language, I will have enough time to finally get this blog prospering and Barcelona will hopefully give me the inspiration I need!

Thanks to everyone who has been given me a lot of encouragement over the past 2 months. It´s good to know that there are actually some people follow my views and thoughts on SEO and online marketing.

Don’t make me think – Usability book by Steve Krug

Feli — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:41:33 +0000

During my holiday in sunny Corfu, I did a lot of reading and one of the books I devoured was “Don’t make me think” – a common sense approach to web usability by Steve Krug.

I know, a lot of people think, why do you bother with usability, you’re a SEO but if you drive visitors to any site, you want them to convert and Steve Krug really makes it easy to understand.

The book is pretty thin and it covers everything from the first impression your website makes to how to actually undertake usability tests. Really interesting and easy to understand. Everything just seems pretty much common sense…. If you have a couple of spare hours, read it!