Forum – The Long Intro
Can you have a long Intro / Abstract?
Q: A curator submitted a very technical and very interesting five paragraph “Introduction” for use on his new Catalog main page and asked my opinion about it’s suitability.
A: My response went like this… my own opinion on this question will almost always center around the volume of text. If you will take a moment to jump over to one of your own main catalog pages you will see that you don’t really have a lot of empty space around the photo that goes at the top of every page. We need a paragraph intro that can “hook” a visitor and hold him/her long enough to become curious enough to click on one of the links that they should see below the intro. The problem with long intro sections is that the reader CAN’T SEE any links because of all the intro text at the top. A wall of text tends to intimidate visitors and we have lots of stats that say that most folks faced with a wall of text tend to click the “back” button and leave.
What I WOULD suggest is that you consider breaking up a large “Intro” into smaller chunks… you could use a chunk for each of the “daughter” sub-topic pages that would logically link from your main page. That way the links would remain visible and your VERY interesting intro paragraph would entice them to tarry a bit longer within your collection.
– Webmaster