Content Critical: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through High-Quality Web Content

by Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton

Book Overview

"The term "bible" is now highly over-used in reference to tech books but if it weren't, that's how I would categorize Content Critical."
Rowan Wilson, Knowledge Management Review "This book is highly recommended. It belongs in every design library. It should be on the reading list of every course in Web design. Any Web designer who plans to be in business five years from now should read this book." Design Research News, Jan...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 027365604X
• ISBN13: 9780273656043
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Pearson FT Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.4" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Great resource for web designers?

At last, content problems no longer have to break the hearts of web designers. Content Critical offers many solutions for making better web sites. Content is so often an after thought (Cut and paste) of web site design, this book clearly states why people are visiting your site (To read) and just how important quality content is. You'll find yourself quoting the easy to understand explanations of XML, search engines, content categorization, navigation design and web site design fundamentals.

An appeal to sanity in creating meaningful Web content

Too much, far too much content on the Web is not presented in a way that makes use of the media the way it is meant to be used. I have been guilty of this myself and soon realized that a different approach to writing and presenting content on the Web was essential. Since reading this book eagerly from cover to cover I soon realized the wisdom of the approach presented by Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton. Less is more! Yes! Drill down to the facts and the heart of your Web content. I'm looking for information, don't waste my time with pretty colors and graphics, I want to learn! This book has inspired me and given me a new attitude to my work - I teach System Analysis and Design at the University of Regina. My students now use this book in my classes! They tell me this book has been invaluable in creating effective Web sites for clients as part of their term project. I have observed that the extent to which the Internet has penetrated organizations has outstripped our understanding of the effective use of the technology. This book resolves that conundrum. You won't go wrong in buying this book.

Get to the point. Then stop.

Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton are experienced journalists who write unashamedly about text content. They define visitors as `readers', not `users', who come to a web site to read and gather content. If that makes Content Critical old fashioned, it is old fashioned for all the right reasons.It deals with the fundamentals of web site content; its purpose, its design, its creation. Readers of McGovern's weekly newsletter won't be surprised by the content, themes or style of the book. It is direct, business-like, sometimes humorous and always well argued.Content Critical is the best non-technical book on the subject of web content that I have come across to date. It is comprehensive and well structured. It demonstrates the authors' long fascination with the Internet as a publishing medium as well as their advocacy of information architecture as a professional discipline.Content Critical has an important message and presents it according to its own rules and guidelines.Content Critical analyses the benefits and costs of content with a model for comparing the cost of content to its reach and value.It is easy to forget when we are surrounded by technological marvels that great content is still difficult and expensive to produce. The proliferation of television channels offering cheap to produce content is clear evidence of that.The central chapters provide checklists and examples for the principles on which the majority of content rests. Topics include:*Creating content and the importance of editorial (since `even the best writer needs an editor')*Information architecture as the foundation upon which a web site is built and developed*Principles for good navigation design*Content layout and design.Content Critical is particularly scathing about headlines and summaries: `Most headings and summaries on the Internet are poor. Headings often give you very little clue as to what the document is actually about.' Nor does it pull its punches when it comes to common stupidities: `At all costs avoid "intro" or "splash" pages. They are a total waste of time.'The final chapters cover building a web site production team and the publishing strategies required if an organisation is to treat content as a high-value asset rather than as a commodity.Content Critical can be summed up by a recent Gerry McGovern newsletter: `Time is our scarcest resource. The less time we have the more our attention span contracts. Write simply. Keep headings, summaries, sentences, paragraphs and documents short. Get to the point. Then stop.'

Doing it right on the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is the world's largest publishing medium, and one of the most important. It is a news source, reference tool, sales venue, meeting point, marketplace, exchange, and entertainment center. It is also an information point and service center. The Web connects millions of organizations to many kinds of clients, customers, members, and publics. The Web is one of the great tools of the information society. It is also our greatest source of information overload.Web problems commonly develop because individuals and organizations fail to recognize that using the Web to aggregate and distribute information is publishing. Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton have written this useful book to help those who write, edit, or design Web content to publish effectively.Effective Web publishing involves getting the right content to the right person at the right time. In this useful, well written book, McGovern and Norton explain how to do it.Content Critical book is a how-to-do-it manual. Written in direct, clear language, the book offers systematic explanation for dozens of useful techniques and principles. It is also a primer in the theory of Web publishing. It explains why the techniques and principles work. It encourages readers to develop a useful philosophy and theory of web design.Most web sites do not work well and many do not work at all. McGovern and Norton attribute this to the lack of common publishing standards on the Web, where the libertarian attitude toward freedom of content is mistakenly confused with failure to consider legibility, ease of use, and ease of navigation. According to McGovern and Norton, this confusion is made worse by designers who mistake the web for an extension of MTV and programmers who see the Web as a playground for new technologies.The solution this book offers is a five-stage publishing strategy with usable checklists and serious conceptual tools for analyzing the situation, defining publishing scope, designing information architecture, building a publishing team, and designing appropriate technology. This book is highly recommended. It belongs in every design library. It should be on the reading list of every course in Web design. Any Web designer who plans to be in business five years from now should read this book. KFKen Friedman. Book review. Design Research News, Volume 7, Number 1, Jan 2002 ISSN 1473-3862.

Gerry is on target.

This book is a must read for those planning, creating or managing websites.The sub-title of the book captures what it is about, Gaining competitive advantage through high-quality web content.Gerry McGovern, through his internet newsletter, New Thinking, has been on a consistent crusade to get all of us to recognize the working content of a web site is words (effective messages) and that website visitors are readers. The book examines this reality in considerable detail and contains many helpful suggestions for improving the effectiveness of website investmentsThe writers make the point that a website is essentially a publication, and needs to be managed in the same sense. The site publisher needs an involved editor, and should use skilled writers----and should not leave content to the nearly obsolete "webmaster"The authors make the point that in many cases the words in a web site are not written with needs of the reader in mind and fail to get the desired response. Their message as too "the seven things readers want from your web site" is a real gem. These are:1. Readers want to be able to find things.2. Readers want your advice.3. Readers want up-to-date, quality content4. Readers want relevant and straightforward content.5. Readers want to do things6. Readers want to interact7. Readers want Privacy.Two passages from the book are effective summaries of its main message,"Remember that the reader is king of the Web, and that everything about your website needs to be done with the reader in mind, is the key to online success.If you know your readers, know how they behave in our information-literate society, and know the seven things they want from your website, you'll be well on your way to success. Remember the best word that sums up the online reader is - impatient"."Few investments in website design are as critical - and as difficult - as planning, testing and implementing a navigation systems that's simple, intuitive and comprehensive enough to serve readers. ..........Readers like a variety of ways to navigate through a website. Make sure you include a wide enough range of navigation options to account for different readers' habits and tastes".The book is filled with clear thinking, practical advice and suggestions. It is an absorbing read, worth your time and money.