Writing for Mobile Content

Nielsen wrote a pretty good article on how to write mobile content. Focus being the main goal of writing for mobile users. In Neilsen's research, the group discovered that "short" is still too long for mobile. The only viable option is to go the route of utlra-short. Short enough for the cognitive to take it all in at one time. Impossibly short.

When users arrive at your web page, they need to be greeted by the least amount of information possible. This minute information relays the highlights of your website. To a reader, the biggest turn-off is to be greeted by a wall of text. A wall of text is neither friendly nor easy to read. Front-load the user first with as little information as possible, so that you won't overload the user's ability to recognize words. Groupon does it especially well by first presenting a listed items before showing a more detailed listing of what's being presented in the secondary screen..

Wikipedia, on the other hand practice something known as progressive disclosure, in which listed items will be shown and that the list items can be opened up to display more information if necessary. In practice, deferring information is very important because of the sensitive nature of that first web interaction with a mobile user. In order to get across everything that you have to get across, you have to use as few words as possible and leave the rest in a secondary screen.

Not attacking readers with secondary information as soon as possible is generally a good idea. In the mobile world, research has shown that it is 108% harder to understand information when reading from a mobile screen because of the lack of screen estate and the weak short-term memory that humans have. 

Hence, keep things short, concise, and to the point. Leave all the detailed information in what is known as a secondary screen. The initial information will let the users know the big picture of the site, then you can show them the more color and variations of the picture later.

That's it for today.

Stay Classy.