The Elementary Standards

Some may know. I'd wager most site visitors do not. Last year, it was calculated that site visitors spent 6 seconds viewing a single page for relevance or interest of what they sought. It’s less. Numerous reasons exist. Niche slang is one.

Roger Johansson and Tommy Olsson co-authored an article which states “We believe in building websites with no unnecessary barriers, thereby making the Web accessible to as many people as possible.” Further, they note Universality.

One aspect of universality that escapes most commerce sites is editorial content. Faulty editorial content causes visitor exits. Haven't you ever gone to a site where product descriptions have been taken from technical specification sheets and model/style numbers are used as product names? I like reading content on those sites —it’s a pleasure to read text and say, “I haven’t a clue what they said!” This can be remedied if ones reads Accessibility Guidelines include Core Techniques for W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, [W3C Note 6 November 2000] 5 Comprehension 5.1 Writing style which offers,

4. Avoid slang, jargon, and specialized meanings of familiar words, unless defined within your document.

This site does not avoid slang. Nor jargon. Nor specialized meanings of familiar words. Nor archaic sentence structures. Nor oblique references. Each article states its summary and conclusion twice: obliquely with Unrecommended use of language; and, simply with concise English.

However, commerce sites should employ common words when they use jargon. Still. That seldom occurs. Most editorial content found on commerce sites has been written by marketing or self-industry copywriters filled with industry slang, industry jargon, industry-invented meanings of familiar words, popular words or phrases, abbreviations and acronyms. Especially, abbreviations and acronyms. Niche markets are notorious, e.g., governmental and pharmaceutical. Niche slang is necessary for one's niche market; However.

Universality's lacking.

Government sites, pharmaceutical sites often obfuscate their content. It may be intentional; it may not. Commerce sites should never believe everyone knows what they do or sell. Or, else, content obfuscation occurs. E.g., You can't understand it.

That W3C Writing Style caveat “—unless defined within your document” may be met with numerous methods: footnotes, <abbr title=""> or restating content with simple language. Of course, if a site prefers solely to remain within its niche-targeted audience or be less than universal for a greater audience or maintain their necessary barrier, it should ignore any and all guidelines.

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Sean Fraser posted this on November 21, 2006 02:10 PM.

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