4 tips on writing for the web
Build better text with purposeful keywords, why you should take care of the look of textual content, the value of the inverted pyramid pattern in web copywriting and some common metrics to gauge readability and legibility.
It tempting to think that content doesn’t affect the usability and performances of your website. In fact, users have clear needs and wants about how content on a page should be.
Users want content to be…..
-findable: content should be easily located in the website or intranet.
Usually when we refer to this concept we mean that the text is optimized for search and you place it in a way that makes it easy for search engines to locate your content. That means also taking care of SEO indications and in using meaningful keywords. Tough a too severe attention to SEO may hinder usability in some cases, NielsenNorman say.
UX experts distinguish between findability and discoverability. The difference lies in the degree users expect certain contents or functionalities to be in the website. Findability matters most to users who are deliberately looking for information or to accomplish a task; discoverability has more to do with the chances to come across stuff users were not aware of beforehand.
Why do user struggle to find content on my website?
That could be put down to two main reasons: either the Information Architecture is not very well-defined and/or the navigation system is not very well designed. For example, assuming that visitors are not visiting two important sections of your site, you may identify two kinds of potential issues: 1) Users do not understand or are not attracted to the names of the sections, and this is a IA issue; 2) Users do not notice the links to the sections, maybe because they are placed in an unhappy position of the page or they are too small- and this is a navigation issue.
Another important facet of findability relates to the structure of the page, and this means using unique, appropriate titles and a correct use of heading tags.
-legible and accessible: users need to be able to detect and correctly see the content without having to squint.
Adequate contrast between text and background, appropriate font and size play a fundamental role in this. Striking an optimal line length- no more than 50–75 characters is also essential to prevent people from getting lost.
Not just a matter of eyes…
Some interesting studies( Hyunjin Song, Norbert Schwarz, If It’s Hard to Read, It’s Hard to Do Processing Fluency Affects Effort Prediction and Motivation) have suggested a link between legibility and the perception of the efforts required to accomplish a physical task.
In the example below, the estimated time to accomplish the task described in the text was nearly twice as long for participants who read the instructions in serif font (brush), compared to the ones who read the same lines in simpler Arial. The two instructions where identical in text length and words.
In another experiment Song and Schwarz performed a similar experiment involving a sushi recipe. Subjects who saw the instructions in Arial estimated that preparation would take 5.6 minutes, while those who read the directions in Mistral, a more complicated font, expect it to take 9.3 minutes!
The look of textual content affects legibility. Here’s some practical tips:
- optimise background/foreground contrast.
- Go for serif fonts, which are better in terms of legibility, provided that they need to be kept at a larger size on most displays.
- avoid excessive use of italics and CAPS
- underlined text is good for links. Avoid using it elsewhere, except for digitally savvy audiences.
- Prefer a line-spacing of 1.5
- Keep text size at min 12–14 pt, which is good also for users with dyslexia.
-readable and appropriate: being able to grasp the meaning of text.
While legibility is about the appearance of words, readability is about their choice and the structure of the text.
Common recommendations are using short words and short sentences; making use of headings, short paragraphs, bulleted or numbered lists, to add dynamism and fluency to the structure; highlighted words or phrases; including only one idea for paragraphs
Another pattern which is useful to design content on a web page is the inverted pyramid structure, a framework derived from journalistic writing style, which assumes that all pages need to describe their contents first, (the 5 Ws), before deep-diving into details.
Assessing Readability
Here’s some common metrics used to gauge the readability of text on your website.
>>FRES. The Flesch Reading Ease Formula is considered to be one of the oldest and most accurate readability formulas.
RE = 206.835 — (1.015 x ASL) — (84.6 x ASW)
RE = Readability Ease
ASL = Average Sentence Length (i.e., the number of words divided by the number of sentences)
ASW = Average number of syllables per word (i.e., the number of syllables divided by the number of words)
The output, i.e., RE is a number ranging from 0 to 100. The higher the number, the easier the text is to read.
HOW TO INTERPRET FRES RESULTS:
Scores : Readability
90–100 : Very Easy
80–89 : Easy
70–79 : Fairly Easy
60–69 : Standard
50–59 : Fairly Difficult
30–49 : Difficult
0–29 : Very Confusing
[Source: readabilityformulas.com]
>>The Gunning’s Fog Index (or FOG) Readability Formula
Step 1: Count the number of exact words and sentences in a text passage of at least 100-words
Step 2: Divide the total number of words in the sample by the number of sentences. This gives you the Average Sentence Length (ASL).
Step 3: Count the number of words of three or more syllables that are NOT (i) proper nouns, (ii) combinations of easy words or hyphenated words, or (iii) two-syllable verbs made into three with -es and -ed endings.
Step 4: Divide this number by the number or words in the sample passage. For example, 25 long words divided by 100 words gives you 25 Percent Hard Words (PHW).
Step 5: Add the ASL from Step 2 and the PHW from Step 4.
Step 6: Multiply the result by 0.4.
The mathematical formula is:
Grade Level = 0.4 (ASL + PHW)
where,
ASL = Average Sentence Length (i.e., number of words divided by the number of sentences)
PHW = Percentage of Hard Words
What matters here most, regardless of the intrinsic aspects of the English langage, is that according to the Gunning Fog Index formula is that short sentences written in a plain language achieve a better score than long sentences written in complicated language.
The ideal score for readability with the Fog index is 7 or 8. Anything above 12 is too hard for most people to read.
The Bible, Shakespeare and Mark Twain: Fog Indexes of around 6.
Most newspapers, like the Times, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal average around 11.
References:
Low Findability and Discoverability: Four Testing Methods to Identify the Causes
If It’s Hard to Read, It’s Hard to Do Processing Fluency Affects Effort Prediction and Motivation, Hyunjin Song and Norbert Schwarz, University of Michigan
Head picture: Pomerlau website
