Tag: featured

6 Strategies for Writing Compelling Headings

6 Strategies for Writing Compelling Headings

Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

I hate to admit that I still have stumbling blocks after decades of writing experience, but, ummm, I do. It’s writing headings. There! I wrote it down—in a public blog post.

If you have the same struggle, I can share some advice and tips with you. No need to go heading-less!

Headings are important because they serve as guideposts to our written content. When effective, they help our readers locate and conceptualize the information they seek from our organizations. (Remember when I wrote about scannability?) Effective headings are especially important in online content, where they continue to feed web search engines, even Google’s.  

Note that Google Search’s March 2024 core update attempts to assess a piece of content’s quality so that our search results contain fewer meaningless clickbait. This puts more pressure on content creators to develop original, helpful online content – including meaningful first- and second-level headings.

Those are strong motivators, right? So why is writing a good heading sooo hard?

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Neurodivergence and Content Design: The Migraine Edition

Neurodivergence and Content Design: The Migraine Edition

Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

Designing online content sensitive to user differences has been our responsibility for at least 20 years – in the U.S., since the advent of Section 508 requirements. During that time, our awareness of inclusivity has evolved to include (pun intended) neurodiversity, a term coined in the 1990s by Judy Singer.

Nick Walker, Ph.D., defines “neurodivergent” folks as having “a mind that functions in ways which diverge significantly from the dominant societal standards of ‘normal.’” (See her helpful blog post “Neurodiversity: Some Basic Terms & Definitions.”)

The mind functions differently. That definition encompasses folks with dyslexia, autism, dyscalculia, ADHD, anxiety, and a neurological injury. It also includes me, a person with migraine disorder. Or it should.

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Instructions Need a Dénouement, Too

Instructions Need a Dénouement, Too

Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

If your job is to create instructions for a product user, plot it out, and don’t skip the dénouement!

Unfamiliar with the term “dénouement?” In literature, the term refers to the ultimate outcome or explanation of a plotline. Literally, in Middle French (its origin), it means to “untie” or “unravel.”

What does all this have to do with writing instructions? If your instructions are taking a user on a journey through a set of tasks (think Campbell’s hero’s journey here), then I urge you to “unravel” the expected outcome of their journey for them – and help them to know they are on the right path along the way. Here’s how.

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What Content Is and Is Not

What Content Is and Is Not

Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

In recent posts, I have defined content as a composition, irrespective of format, that moves or guides its audience to feel or act or that adds to or synthesizes a body of knowledge. Content typically carries with it its own context.

As such, content is mostly distinct from raw data and other digitized information that serve only as single reference points or as machine records. Moreover, content has–and can be reused for–an identifiable purpose or reason for existing.

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7 Definitions of Content Strategy (in 16 Years)

7 Definitions of Content Strategy (in 16 Years)

Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

As a content strategist, I focus on the internal structures that support and deliver your organization’s key communications. That framework includes a content model, content development processes and governance, content reuse, metadata and SEO, analytics, and other methodologies that enable your content to be effective, efficient, useful, and scalable. Read more →