Principle #3: Structure your content

The readability of a website depends as much on how it is structured, as on the content. Unlike those in conventional publications, pages in a website and content in a webpage can be read in any order and therefore must be more able to 'stand alone'.

To create well-structured text, at the document level:

• organise it into blocks of related information
• put these in order of importance
• use this hierarchy to structure relationships among text blocks
• limit each page to one concept
• use hyperlinks to connect related material.

At the page level:

• put the most important information first (e.g. summary and/or conclusion). Ask yourself, 'If a reader is to leave this page with one idea, what do I want that to be?'
• where the amount of text justifies it, use two or three levels of headings, and maintain the consistency of this hierarchy
• use short paragraphs with one idea per paragraph
• use simple sentences of varying length.