Date: Friday, July 6, 2007

How do people read on the web?

People don’t read information on the Internet in the same way they would read a printed page. There’s been extensive research into the way we read online and it’s a major issue for many businesses worldwide who are keen to identify the online reading habits of their customers in order to keep them happy.

Usability Research

Dr Jakob Nielson has been conducting web usability surveys since 1994. He started his research by looking at site layouts, architecture and graphics before choosing to focus on web content, which he believed was the most important thing to a user. During his vast research, Nielson made a number of important discoveries that have had a huge impact on the way people write for the web.

Nielson’s research concluded:

- People don’t actually read on the web – they scan. Nielson discovered 79% of Internet users scan pages whereas just 16% of users will read every word. Speed is so essential to the Internet user that many of them will only scan the first sentence of a paragraph.

- Short, functional copy is generally favoured over long copy, which takes longer to read and doesn’t point readers directly to the information they require. Readers of web copy are three times more likely than readers of print copy to limit their in-depth reading to short paragraphs. Ultimately, the longer the copy is, the less likely Internet users are to read it.

- Readers like information to be signposted in your copy. By using summaries, eye-catching headlines and meaningful sub-heads, copy easily catches the eye of the reader and allows them to absorb lots of information in a relatively small amount of time.

- Internet users are impatient. They don’t like copy that’s accompanied by too many images because they take too long to load and are often disappointing. They also dislike having to scroll down the page to view content.

Why do people read differently?

There are a number of reasons to suggest why people approach reading online in a different way to reading print material but laziness certainly isn’t one of them. Reading online isn’t always a positive experience for many Internet users; most people read 25% slower from a computer monitor than they do in print and looking at computer monitors for too long can often cause strained eyes and fatigue.

Conclusion

For many people, reading online copy fails to give them the pleasure they may receive from reading print copy. Nielson’s usability research emphasises the various ways Internet users have had to adapt their reading style in order to make reading online a nicer experience for them. To please potential customers and encourage them to take the time to read their copy, businesses have to be sympathetic to this and adapt their sites accordingly to make the user experience as friendly as possible.