Learn to Write Content for Mobile Devices Using the Yahoo Style Guide

I looked around and asked myself...

"Where did all the newspapers go?"

As recently as 1 year ago, every seat on the train used to be covered with the day's newspapers. You could easily find on any of the seats, discarded copies of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, or The Wall Street Journal and if you didn't feel like foraging, you could keep up with news by reading over the shoulder of the person sitting in front of you.

Today, in a packed, early morning train I counted only 3 noses buried in unfolded newspapers.

All You Can See Are Hundreds Of Blue Faces

The rest of the readers were facing the glow of IPhones, Blackberries, and other smart phones, while, other readers were getting their news on Kindles, IPads, and other electronic reading devices.

It seems that readers are adjusting, and accepting the small screens on mobile devices in greater numbers, for the portability, versatility, and convenience that they offer. In the palm of their hands they have access to the newspapers they love, but also books, magazines, and other information sources.

Is That The Internet In Your Pocket...?

I am a good example of this major shift in how readers are changing what they read, and how they read it. I used to rely on news from the printed material I had access to. Since we now have the ability to carry the whole online world with us, not just one, or two newspapers, our choices are not confined to what we can buy regionally, or in my case, what I used to be able to find on the train.

Things have changed. During my 1 hour of commuting time each workday I use my IPhone to read articles from my hometown newspaper, then The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. After that I start using search engines to find content that may be useful for whatever article I am either currently writing or planning to write.

I don't read everything, but I have gotten good at pulling out all the relevant bits and important chunks from each article.

Are You Creating Content That Is Mobile Device Friendly?

Since I am an observant content provider I figured that I better start learning how the information I create should be adjusted to a mobile device format for the millions of readers who are now adopting this new way of reading, and researching.The Online Yahoo Style Guide contains all the answers to questions you may have about how to write properly formatted content for this large, and growing mobile audience. The chapter, Consider How Copy Will Look On Mobile Devices explains how content should be formatted so the readers using mobile devices can get what they want fast, and in a fashion that allows them to see and understand the main points of the content without having to scroll around too much.

The main point of this chapter stresses the need to...

Make every word count

You make very word count in your content by keeping the most important information at the top, and by keeping it short and in small understandable, important points.

By using the techniques in The Online Yahoo Style Guide, I can take this wordy article and reduce it to just the relevant facts in a presentable, quick read style, that would present itself well on a mobile device.

My article can be reduced to something that will load fast on a mobile device and will get right to the main point.

Example:

Creating Mobile Device Content

• The Yahoo Style Guide gives you techniques for delivering, mobile friendly, content.

• More people are getting information from their mobile devices.

• Newspaper (printed) and other medium, readership is decreasing.

• You should be considering the mobile device reader, when creating content.

This is just another way of writing that you can add to your skills and abilities as a content producer. Take a look at how The Wall Street Journal or even how Associated Content displays its mobile content. In most cases it is clean, in small bites with relevant facts front and center.

Learning to write content for mobile devices is smart, and easy with the Online Yahoo Style Guide and you should be considering this audience each time you produce content.