To Long; Dont Read: The tl;dr statement
I would hazard to guess that no one is going to read this. Not this post, not this website or anything about me. Why? Because it’s too long, there’s too much, and who can invest in something that they may or may not be interesting or helpful.
I’m actually okay with this, because really this site has one purpose, I want a visitor to know: Who I am and what I do. Everything else on the site is just in support of that.
That got me to thinking: Should more sites be designed around a tl;dr statement?
The term tl;dr means “Too long; don’t read”, you’ll find it in use in some popular forums such as Hacker News and Reddit and is usually followed by a short synopsis of a more lengthy comment that adds color and nuisance, but really the tl;dr says it all.
When thinking about your site, could it be summed up in a short thesis sentence? Will digging deeper only reinforce the thesis? If so why not help your visitors?
My tl;dr statement can be found on the left had side of every page. I’ve played around with different phasing, considering that it was probably going to show up in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) snippet. It’s my name, what I do, and a quote from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
I don’t really encourage a dialogue on my site through social media or comments because at this point it really won’t support my thesis, I mainly get three types of visitors:
1. Someone through search.
2. A recruiter or potential employer
3. My mom
Let’s look at them one by one
Visitors through search: They come, and just like that, they are gone. My tl;dr statement is short enough so they get 2 pieces of information. Who I am and what I do. Hopefully it lends a bit of credibility to whatever they skim through
Recruiter/Potential employer: It’s a little unfair to lump these in together, because they really are two different audiences. However since a recruiter is really only looking for a resume, they should hopefully be able to find it pretty quickly. A potential employer on the other hand may be looking for something to help fill in some blanks inherent in a resume in woefully thin hiring processes. Hopefully by listing my projects and my writing, it fills in some of the gaps.
My mom: She’s been coming since I launched my geocites page. Love you mom.
In other words, most spend very little time on the site, only a potential employer and my mom has probably gotten this far. That’s because anyone can code, but a good personality and cultural fit is much harder to hire for.
In conclusion, think about not only how you want visitors to interact with your site and how they actually do interact with your site, also think about the one or two things that you’d like that person to leave with and make that your tl;dr statement