Sitegeist Blog - Beitrags-Archiv für die Kategory 'User focus'

Alt text (alternative text) is the little bit of descriptive text that displays:

• when you hover over an image in a browser, or
• in the place of a broken or missing image

Importantly, alt tags are also used by vision-impaired users who rely on screen readers to gether information from websites. The alt tag is literally read aloud to these users.

So alt text describes the image. And it’s a requirement for accessibility for many government and business sites. And it’s also handy for SEO purposes.

But just saying what’s in the image isn’t enough. When describing a photo of a monkey wearing a fez, it’s not enough to write “monkey wearing fez”.

Designers work hard to create or source images that evoke a feeling. Images are a significant part of the ‘voice’ of any good website. Just like writers, designers are attempting to say something. Don’t the vision impaired deserve to share that?

So set aside SEO considerations (alt text isn’t that important anyhow). Actively write alt text. Describe the emotion as well as the content of the image. Write alt text for humans. “A scary monkey wearing a red fez poses for the camera”.

It’s good for usability. It’s good for creativity. And it’s good for the soul.

Effective communication isn’t just about getting the message right. It’s about making sure it’s right for your target audience.

Here are some signs. They all have the same intent: to stop people putting graffiti on walls. They all have the same audience, too: people who are likely to put graffiti on walls.

This sign makes an appeal to graffiti artists. But it asks them to acknowledge that their work is dirty. It’s unlikely to carry much weight.

This sign takes the firm law-and-order line. Graffiti is illegal. But, of course, graffiti artists already know that. Again, it's unlikely to work.

Here's a photo I took at a building site near my house. Simple, direct, and targeted at its audience. No graffiti anywhere near the place.

Of course, you don’t always have to use bad language to make your point. But you do need to consider the needs and motivations of your market when determining your message.

The Problem
Here are some headlines from Melbourne’s Age newspaper recently:

• Tiny digger turns deserts into gardens
• Wedge politics
• You can’t hide when you seek
• Dreaming the next stage
• Look how she’s grown!

Can you see what’s wrong? These headlines are all fine in a printed paper, where they are in designated sections, accompanied by images and subheadings (ie context). For most websites, though, they simply wouldn’t work. And that includes the newspaper site that these headlines were reproduced on.

Why? Because headlines often appear out of context on websites; in lists of articles, archive pages and on internal and external search results pages.

Take another look, and imagine these headlines are a list of links to products or articles on your site. What are the links about? Why would a potential customer click on any one of them?

The Answer
Having read the newspaper stories, these would have been more useful and appropriate headlines:

• Bilby foraging creates nutrient-rich land
• Urban planning about-face on Green Wedge strategy
• Is Google too powerful?
• Calls for a national indigenous theatre company
• Justine Clarke hits big time with kids

The strategy is simple: link text should describe what the target content is about. Don’t be cute. Don’t be clever. Save that for the article itself.

Clicks will be more qualified; visitors will likely be actually interested in the content. Your users will love you, Google will love you. Everyone wins. And it’s a double-win for SERP (search engine results page) skimmers.

Not The Answer
Of course, you can go the other way, and totally disrespect your audience for the short-term benefit of cheap traffic. Australian media analysis TV program Media Watch reported an example from June 2009 where News Limited newspaper websites around the country featured a story titled ‘Missing baby found in Sandwich’.

The baby in question was only missing for a couple of hours, and was eventually found safe and well in Sandwich, Massachusetts.

Funny? Maybe. But how many readers who clicked the link were pleased with the punchline?

You’ve got a new-look website. You have a great new application. You offer a hip new service. Good on you.

I don’t care.

You offer better service? You offer ease-of-use? You give me something I can’t get anywhere else? You follow up on my problems?

Ahhh. Now you have my attention. Let’s begin…