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.

Reference

Commonwealth of Australia 1999, Guidelines for Commonwealth Information Published in Electronic Formats, Australian Government Information Management Office, Canberra, viewed 13 July 2005, <http://www.agimo.gov.au/information/publishing/formats>

Last updated 02 August 2005