The “known-new contract” is a linguistic concept used to describe how writers achieve cohesion between sentences by first presenting what readers already know (information previously presented) before introducing new information.

Refrain from opening new browser windows. [...] Carefully examine the user’s context, task at hand, and next steps when deciding whether to open links to documents and external sites in the same or a new browser tab."

"If you can write a half decent document you may be mistaken for thinking writing for the web will be easy. However, the web requires a focus of writing rarely needed elsewhere."

Users pay close attention to photos and other images that contain relevant information but ignore fluffy pictures used to "jazz up" web pages.

The Europa Web Guide is the official rulebook for the European Commission's web presence, covering editorial, legal, technical, visual and contractual aspects. All European Commission web sites must observe the rules and guidelines it contains. Web practitioners are invited to observe its contents and keep abreast of updates.

Quick accessibility checklist (by European Commission)

Writing tips from "Writing for the European Commission web presence"

“Daily political events consistently evoked negative emotions [which] predicted worse day-to-day psychological and physical health, but also greater motivation to take action aimed at changing the political system that evoked the negative emotions in the first place.”

Law 1 / Reduce - The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.Law 2 / Organize - Organization makes a system of many appear fewer.Law 3 / Time - Savings in time feel like simplicity.Law 4 / Learn - Knowledge makes everything simpler.Law 5 / Differences - Simplicity and complexity need each other.Law 6 / Context - What lie…

"Designers love it, website owners want to fill it. Whitespace seems to be one of the most controversial aspects of design. Why then is it so important and how can we ensure it is maintained?"

From now, house style guide recommends terms such as ‘climate crisis’ and ‘global heating’

start to understand how we may need to balance social media with other more challenging, but ultimately more satisfying forms of communication

"This article presents three experiments (total N = 1718) investigating the possibility of familiarity backfire within the context of correcting novel misinformation claims and after a 1-week study-test delay."

Users have learned to ignore content that resembles ads, is close to ads, or appears in locations traditionally dedicated to ads.

Summary: Design elements that appear similar in some way — sharing the same color, shape, or size — are perceived as related, while elements that appear dissimilar are perceived as belonging to separate groups.

Gerry McGovern on skills needed for digital communication people. For example: - choose the right word to drive action; - make it easy finding content allowing users to complete a task quickly; - design for maintenance and evolution; - love metadata, be an information architect. I wished I had all of those.

"Eyetracking studies show that users sometimes look at only a single result on a search-results page because that result is good enough for their needs."

The growing stream of reporting on and data about fake news, misinformation, partisan content, and news literacy is hard to keep up with. This weekly roundup offers the highlights of what you might have missed.

"Team members are the biggest reasons for our success ... Over 79% of employees who leave jobs, leave their managers. ... Leaders can find great power, influence, and success in making their team members feel important. "

8 ways to help ease stress, improve morale, and make working remotely easier for your team.

"behavioral science provides several insights into habits we might adopt to increase our joy and happiness—almost instantaneously."

People do not read online: "fundamental scanning behaviors remain constant, even as designs change."

"The Huffington Post is the third most popular online news site, after only Yahoo! News and Google News. They must be doing something right!"

"Plain Language For Everyone, Even Experts" (video)

"While it is important to keep key information easily accessible, the 3-click rule is an arbitrary rule of thumb that is not backed by data."

"Design for each channel’s unique strengths and role in the customer journey to create usable context-specific experiences."

Chunking is a concept where text and multimedia content is broken up into smaller chunks to help users process, understand, and remember it better.

"Never be afraid to speak up, simply because you feel there are more valuable voices in the room. [...] Just be sure to express it as your perspective and not absolute truth!"

One self-experiment we all should try once: To understand this website based on its images.