Zapping and Fast-forwarding

The zapping phenomenon first appeared because people wanted to avoid television commercial breaks. With the increasing number of information and entertainment providers, and facilitated access, people became so eager for information and stimulus, that they don’t only avoid the commercials, they zap in the middle of TV shows, movies and every time they lack that stimulus.

With magazines, books, journals and web-sites, the behavior is exactly the same. We read the headlines, and the “bolds” and we keep fast-forward.

This brings me to the subject of “Content-design”. We must adapt not only the image and functionality to create stimulus, but we also have to adapt the content to the fast-forward reading style. This applies not only for the web-sites, as it is always associated, it applies to everything, from article writing to email writing, users manuals, proposals, reports, etc.

So, if you really like to write long paragraphs, I guess you will be more successful writing romances. All the rest will need bulleted lists, numbered lists, summaries, info-graphics and illustrations.