Define the contents - How the texts should be on the Web

You must establish what content the site will present to fulfill its mission and meet the requirements of the company and the audience.

It is necessary to elaborate a content development plan, with basic and extended information, possible to be presented at a later stage.

These decisions must be made in agreement with the members of the company.

The information to be presented can not come directly from texts created for other types of media ("flat" texts, basically on paper), such as those for institutional presentation in books, congresses or brochures.

The texts must be written and presented according to the particular requirements of Web writing.

How should the texts to be presented on a website?

When creating content for the Web, these should be: brief, concise and punctual, very structured to allow a general view and the option to extensions or deepenings through links.

They must have clear and direct titles and subtitles that allow great mobility, that link to other texts inside and outside the Web site, that is, they are not flat and allow a dynamic and direct approach.

The sentences should be short, simple and clear, written in direct style.

In addition, access to supporting documents, sometimes extensive texts such as treaties, laws and declarations, must be provided, but they must be optional.

Good texts should also be written in advance giving the users the greatest number of elements to know what information they can access if they choose to continue browsing.

The sources of the text, and the date of creation or update must always be cited.

Determine the structure of the contents

The first Web sites developed were based on the premise "Walk, wait and see".

With time, the appropriate structure of information began to be considered as important as the contents in themselves.

Hypertextuality is the key resource for the establishment of these structures.

It is not enough that the information exists, it must have an organization that facilitates access and presents it as a whole.

The reading on the Web is not sequential and the appropriate forms must be provided so that navigation is direct and profitable.

It is basic to organize information, divide it into areas (large logical units) and subordinate to each area the relevant information, that is, build a hierarchical structure, establish levels and relationships.

The logical organization of the site allows users to go through it making successful predictions about where to find things.

In this stage, a graphic representation of the structure (conceptual map) to be developed must be constructed to present the agreed contents.

This representation that shows not only the contents, but also their hierarchical organization and relationships, is called the ordinogram.