If you're exclusively a website designer, this might not be as important for you to know, but for those of you who design and create content for websites, this is the post for you.
When
most people visit a website for the first time, they tend to be critical in
some way. Firstly they will tend to notice how readable the site is set up.
Everyone should be able to read the content. If everything appears as a wall of
text, it is a huge problem. Walls of text sometimes can make you feel as if you
are reading an info dump, or rather, an endless flow of dull information
(Spooner). This defeats the purpose of scannability. Readers want to be able to
skim through and find the most essential points; otherwise the readers will be
bored, frustrated, and are more likely to leave that site. The easiest way to avoid this is via the use of headers, paragraphs, and visuals
(Spooner).
Linking
is another useful tool that people tend to get use inefficiently. There are
some that tend to think that underlining is a great way to catch your eye [which
it is] and use it for emphasis uses only. This may work in a printed
publication, but this is the web. When a user sees underlined text, they tend
to click on it thinking it is a website (Spooner). When a new page doesn’t
open, the user feels tricked. This
frustration is not needed. If you are trying to make a point, bold, or
italicize your text. Underlining is reserved for links only.
To add to linking, when referring
to an external source, never, ever use the phrase “CLICK HERE.” It is useless
and does not add any knowledge to the reader. It is more reading for the reader
and a waste of space (Spooner). If you want to effectively link, do so in a
short, descriptive manner (Webb). Saying “see pictures of…” is a better option,
but integrating the link into a part of the text is best.
The most important factor in a web
based document is readability. Fonts are what make this happen. A serif font,
which what you will typically see in a printed document, is very hard on the
eyes when displayed on a computer monitor (Kyrnin). Those hooks and stylized
edges that you see on each and every letter tend to blur together (Kyrnin).
This is why serif fonts are not used on the web whereas sans-serif is what is
used instead. These are the easiest fonts to read. They are clear and very easy
to read when it comes to scannability (Kyrnin).
So when
someone visits your page, the most important factors to utilize properly are:
·
Text
o
Spacing
o
Paragraphs
o
Headers
o
Visual aids
·
Linking
·
Fonts
Works Cited
Spooner, Chris. "10
Usability crimes you really shouldn’t commit." Line25. N.p., 20 2009. Web. 3 Dec 2012.
<http://line25.com/articles/10-usability-crimes-you-really-shouldnt-commit>
Webb, Philip. "Content
& usability: writing for the web." Webcredible. N.p., 1 2012.
Web. 3 Dec 2012. <http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-usability/web-content.shtml>
Kyrnin, Jennifer. "Font families - serif, sans-serif,
monospace, script, fantasy." Web Design: About.com. N.p.. Web. 3
Dec 2012. <http://webdesign.about.com/od/fonts/a/aa080204.htm>
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