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ACM SIGCHI WWW Human Factors (Open Discussion)

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Hal Shubin <[log in to unmask]>
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Fri, 18 Feb 2000 10:15:03 -0500
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Hal Shubin <[log in to unmask]>
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I've been talking with a marketing person about telling stories in an
online catalog. Rather than just say what the item is, how big it is and
when it will ship, the idea is to get the shopper excited and interested
when she reads the description. Like a good sales clerk in a fancy store.

It makes sense to me, both intellectually and from my own experience. Does
anyone know of any studies or evaluations of this?

Nielsen wrote about different writing styles in an Alertbox from some years
ago, comparing writing styles (I just skimmed for highlights -- read it at
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html). They found that "using all three
  improvements in writing  style together: concise,  scannable, and
objective" gave the best result. Does that apply here? I suppose it's
possible to be concise and write in a scannable format while giving
emotional information. But that's not necessarily objective. And his study
used tourism information for Nebraska. Selling expensive stuff to people
online might require a different approach.

                                        -- hs

Hal Shubin
Interaction Design, Inc., http://www.user.com
617 489 6595 voice, 617 489 7395 fax

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