Another vote for scannability when writing for the Web
Written by amedeo on May 6th, 2008
Most recent Alertbox column from Jakob Nielsen, the “King of Usability”:
- On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.
Why I’m interested:
- There is still a lot of room for the evolution of how text is presented on a news site, as well as how stories are written. Nielsen broaches this.
- I wonder what’s after the pyramid.
- I like CNN’s bullet-point summary at the top of its articles, about which Pat Thornton has written.
I have not read the study (here, but you need a membership for download) cited by Nielsen, so there may be questions about the methodology, such as:
- Did it look at news sites?
- Did it consider the reader’s goal when using a site?
Other interesting work from Nielsen on how people read on the Web:
- How Users Read on the Web (They don’t), which also offers tips on presenting text on the Web
- Eyetracking Research
Here’s a piece I wrote about writing for the Web.
And a video that effectively critiques videos on financial news sites while making me laugh:
