The Importance of Context: Does that term mean what you think it means?
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On her blog, IttyBiz.com, Naomi Dunford recently covered some highlights of the surprising Google search terms that bring bring traffic to her site. It’s an interesting snapshot of some of the amusing, weird, and sometimes sad, things people search for information on.
From the “weird” category: “cattle branding kids.”
Naomi’s initial reaction was similar to mine: What the …? And I agreed with her, saying that search term was “messed up.” But then two James(es), Chartrand and Cross, jumped in and suggested explanations for the search term that were much less evil: The person was looking for information about teaching kids to brand livestock, or they were looking for information about branding kids-AKA-baby goats (Cross’, based on his experience growing up on a farm).
This illustrates the danger of jumping to conclusions about the meanings of things we read. This can be dangerous. I’d read the term “cattle branding kids” and immediately began think of all sorts of ways the person who searched for that was evil and wrong when, in context, the search could have been perfectly innocent.
That’s what it comes down to: context. Before getting too worked up or bothered by something we read (say, an email from a coworker), we should probably make in effort to see where that person was coming from first. Sure, what you read may well turn out to be genuinely upsetting. Then, by all means, react appropriately. But maybe it won’t. Better to know first.
On the flip side: Try to anticipate all the ways (impossible, of course, but go for as many as you can) what you create might be interpreted. If some of them are pretty bad, consider reworking it. As a bonus, this will force you to be less ambiguous in your creation and make it more meaningful for your audience/market.
As an example, say “Cattle Branding Kids” had been on a sign at a county fair. That’s not too useful, and it’s potentially scary. Consider instead, “Teaching Children to Brand” or “You Don’t Get My Goat!: Livestock Branding for the Beginner.” (Okay, that last one’s pretty stupid, but you get the idea.) Now the sign has meaning, the people at the fair know what to expect, and no one is going to be tempted to call child services.
When encountering ambiguous prose, then, don’t assume the worst. And try to craft your own prose to make the worst unassumable. (And if “unassumable” is not a word, it should be.)
City photo credit Jason Grote. Farm photo credit Nicholas_T. Both images licensed under Creative Commons.
I don’t know, I think I like “You don’t get my goat”! Thanks for the link, and for making a very important point. (In the privacy of my own brain, I choose to still believe that someone was jokingly threatening to brand their children, but then, my brain is sick.)
Thanks for the link and nice design on the site.
@James: Sure thing. Glad the design appeals. I can’t take full credit, but I think I customized it nicely. Thanks for stopping by!
But of course, the tricky part is that while that sign at the county fair should be clear, so far as what it means. It still needs to convey the fact that those looking for “Cattle Branding Kids” turn up the booth. (That may be the point of Naomi’s entry. I’ll ave to take a look.)
I guess I’m getting at the discoverable part of the equation. Presentation and readability go a long way to conveying meaning to real flesh and blood people. But nuance aside, Google has taught an entire generation how to look for things online.
The same thing happens with corporate recruiters who do little more these days than scan for keywords and a radius. The barrier to entry in this case is stuffing the right keywords somewhere into your document so that it will eventually reach the desk of a hiring manager. Of course, the tactics that get you past the barrier often make the resultant resume completely unreadable.
Crafting the message for end-user readability can become like the proverbial tree in the forest. The end-user completes the process the message is intended to serve and the discovery process closes the loop. It’s often the search engine which provides that discovery process in today’s economy and what people search for isn’t necessarily what we forsee. It underscores the fact that we rarely have a single audience for what we create.
What I wonder about is not so much what people were looking for who stumble on my site by accident, but rather what were the people searching on who should have found my site but didn’t. And that’s a much tougher nut to crack.
Speaking of context, I saw a sign in Anacortes, Washington a couple of week ago when I was in the US. It had me ROFLMAO. The pic is here: http://travel.webshots.com/pho.....1055MUUUvH
Oh, for a comma, a line space, a semicolon, anything…
Rhonda