Joined an interesting discussion today about writing for the web, most of which applies to information architecture.

Chunking content
Folks read 25% slower on the web and the ease with which users scan becomes increasingly difficult on a screen. Because of this, consider 'grouping' your content so that users can consume it in digestable chunks. Include headers, sub-headers, as well as formatting like bolding, bullets, or pull quotes to help the user break up the page.

Page titles
Including page titles or section headers is a best practice, but particularly useful for users discovering a page from search results. If they click on a link from the results page only to arrive at a page deep within your site containing no title, they will be forced to begin reading to understand what they're looking at. If you force a user to read instead of allowing them to read because they choose to, you're disrupting their 'browsing' mode and you face a good chance of them swiftly hitting the back button to explore the other search results. Along with page titles, including breadcrumbs and highlighting which section in the global navigation they're in are good practices. This provides immediate feedback on their position within your site.

Information Snacks
This is a term I'd heard a few years back to describe small, digestible pieces of information that users will scan thanks to their short length, and will revel in if related to the information they're seeking. The fact is, users on websites jump around, they don't scan in a linear fashion. Watch an eye tracking session and this will be immediately clear. Designers know this too and the best of them will know how to design elements to draw the eye around the page. Provide related or contextual information on the page, and allow users to discover other tid-bits of information that may be of relevance to their information search.

To ensure that anyone coming to your site can see the fonts on your site, you must work within a list of fonts common to the Windows and Mac operating systems. The following site explains this in more detail and provides a visual presentation of the acceptable fonts: http://www.ampsoft.net/webdesign-l/WindowsMacFonts.html

Much to Courtney's chagrin, Helvetica doesn't make the list.