Show, don’t tell

I just discovered Gabriel Smy’s blog and the first post I read was a doozy. The principal of “show, don’t tell” is key not only for website design, but for good writing and Smy’s got a great summary of why it’s important and how to make it work for your online writing.

You simply don’t need to talk at your visitors so much. Don’t write ‘click here to download the document’– simply write the name of the document and make it a link. Don’t write ‘to get in touch with us click on contact’ – simply put the word contact somewhere prominent and expected, say the menu bar.

Good stuff! And I can’t resist one more quote:

People are after something. If you’ve got it, give it, instead of asking them to solve your web site clue by stupid clue.