“I love YOU”, the user of my website, will make all the difference when deciding on what words to use, and where, on your website.

Something that looks good, or even language that sounds good isn’t always what the user wants when they visit your site. They want to achieve a task: find out when Bob Dylan’s playing Cork, buy a flight, share photos of their kids … whatever it is, if they’re doing it online, they want to do it simply and they want to do it NOW.

No news there you say. But it’s a message worth repeating, even the mighty make mistakes, as Jacob Nielsen notes in an email postscript to his latest alertbox.

He points us to Martin Hardee’s blog @ Sun, which tells the story of how bland headlines (using just three little words, Small, Cool, Efficient, together with a picture of a snowball) spoil a great story and depress click through rates.