a quick guide to long-form content (wordcamp toronto 2014)
TRANSCRIPT
Different stories require different
ways of telling them.
TL;DR
Long-form examples
Snow Fall (New York Times)
Savages (Pitchfork Media)
A Stiff Upper Lip Is Killing British Men (VICE)
Long-Form is here
Long-form stories get shared!
Short and long content
Short Long
Simple Complex
One development in a
larger story
Mostly self-contained
Often easy to write Requires info, time,
perspective
Value is in speed and
quantity
Value is in quality
How you tell a long-form story
News/Information Narrative
Important
Less
Important
Beginning
Middle
End
In storytelling, it’s what
you leave out that makes
the story good.- Casey Neistat
Long-form design considerations
It’s about story,
not navigation, or
ads.
Focus on readability.
Think of the flow of
information.
The central design characteristic of Long-form:
It’s all about scrolling.
Navigation that packs things onto the site
Navigation for long-form content
Long-form in WordPress
WP themes suited to long-form
The Aesop Story Engine plugin
Tweaking CSS
A few of my favourite themes… (from themeforest.net)
And long-form themes from Creativemarket.com
Aesop Story Engine adds content options
CSS tweaks to text
Snow Fall Text CSS:
font-size: 15px;
line-height: 22px;
padding-right: 50px;
margin-right: 348px;
WordPress Plugin for CSS: Simple Custom CSS or Jetpack
Stiff Upper Lip Text CSS:font-family: Arial,sans-serif;font-size: 1rem;line-height: 1.7rem;margin-bottom: 2rem;
Changes to text can make things more readable.
NOTE: 1rem = 16px
Long-form is extremely difficult to pull off
online...but it’s worth it.
