I love ReadyMade magazine and have been a semi-frequent purchaser, and now subscriber, since issue 5. Reading about other projects is inspiring stuff. I rarely make any of the projects, I'm usually inspired to do something else, but it's still awesome.
The only damper on this parade of Awesomeness is that the instructions can be tough to read. So let's fix that.
The only damper on this parade of Awesomeness is that the instructions can be tough to read. So let's fix that.
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Open up an issue of ReadyMade and go to the project section, the meat of the magazine where you can read instructions for making something cool. This one is for making a camera mount for your dashboard.
On the web there is infinite space to work with. In a magazine the writers get one or two pictures and a few hundred words to describe their project. To get the most out of their column inches, the folks at ReadyMade cram all the instructions back-to-back, forming one solid column of text.
This technique is annoying when reading because it's easy to get lost on the page. When actually doing a project and going back and forth from work to reading it's even worse. This affects me more than most since I've always had a hard time reading text on a page to begin with.
To make this easier, I like to add a visual aid so that my eyes don't get lost.
On the web there is infinite space to work with. In a magazine the writers get one or two pictures and a few hundred words to describe their project. To get the most out of their column inches, the folks at ReadyMade cram all the instructions back-to-back, forming one solid column of text.
This technique is annoying when reading because it's easy to get lost on the page. When actually doing a project and going back and forth from work to reading it's even worse. This affects me more than most since I've always had a hard time reading text on a page to begin with.
To make this easier, I like to add a visual aid so that my eyes don't get lost.
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Jen from ReadyMade mag here. We RM staffers just wanted to let you know that your concerns have not gone unheard! The feedback is mucho appreciated—and we're trying to figure out how to resolve the length problems with our project instructions.
In the meantime, your wish has been granted: To say "thanks" your editorial eagle eye, we're extending your subscription by a year. ;)
If you pull out the information and present it in a format that is easy to skim or pick out individual parts (ex. bullet list, delimited parts) then you have a much higher chance that the people reading will go through the whole thing and not just pass over it.
Organizing content in this manner is a surefire way to increase conversion times (people stay on the site longer) and lose fewer readers. With this practice becoming practically a standard of web publishing and more people moving to the internet for information/entertainment, expect to lose more readers to impatience because the content isn't easy to pick apart like a website.
Look at the way this site is done. It's hard not to camp out here for hours link-hopping and checking out cool stuff. I haven't been on since before they added the PDF feature, talk about an awesome idea.