How we read websites

We live in a world in which we are bombarded with information.  On an average day we are hit with "the equivalent of 174 newspapers of data". This surely has an influence on our attention span and affects how we interact with information.

So with an awareness of the above, how do we use this to our advantage when designing content for websites? Studies have shown that, on average, Web Page Users (WPU’s) have time to read at most 28% of the words during a visit; but that 20% is a more realistic amount. This means people rarely read web pages word by word; instead they scan the page, picking out pertinent words and sentences. This fact should inform what content we add to a website.

Something else to keep in mind is that people most often land on websites via search engines. They have a keyword in their mind which will influence the way they read the website and consequently will scan website content for that keyword.

Below is a quick example to show how using bolded text to highlight words may help the viewer to stick around. I selected "coffee making tips" as a keyword/question and googled it and found a list on the subject. The first section (1.) is the simple bullet list with no words highlighted. The second section (2.) is the same list but keywords are highlighted to make scanning a bit easier. This little technique should have an big influence on the user when they scan for content.


(1.) Tips for brewing good coffee:     

• Use fresh coffee. The fresher the coffee, the better the taste!
  See the storage tips above.
• Use pure water. Most of your cup of coffee is made up of water, so it makes sense to ensure that your water is pure. Tap water contains impurities so ideally you should either filter your tap water with a carbon filter or use bottled water.
• Do not boil the water. Coffee is best made with water that has not boiled and is slightly below boiling point.       
• Use coffee that is ground specifically for the brewing method you use. Different brewing methods require different grinds of different coarseness. If you use coffee ground to fine for your brewing method, you will experience over-extracted, bitter sludge. Too coarse and the coffee will be weak and watery. 
• Use the correct proportion of coffee and water for the number of cups you are serving. Use 7g of coffee, which is one coffee scoop or one heaped tablespoon per cup – and note that this is “per cup”, not “per mug”. Use a kitchen measure to determine how many real cups you are making in order to know how much coffee to use.

Remember the keyword / question that was search for "coffee making tips"


(2.) TIPS FOR BREWING GOOD COFFEE:     

• Use fresh coffee. The fresher the coffee, the better the taste!
• See the storage tips above.       
• Use pure water. Most of your cup of coffee is made up of water, so it makes sense to ensure that your water is pure. Tap water contains impurities so ideally you should either filter your tap water with a carbon filter or use bottled water.
• Do not boil the water.  Coffee is best made with water that has not boiled and is slightly below boiling point.       
• Use coffee that is ground specifically for the brewing method you use. Different brewing methods require different grinds of different coarseness. If you use coffee ground to fine for your brewing method, you will experience over-extracted, bitter sludge. Too coarse and the coffee will be weak and watery.
• Use the correct proportion of coffee and water for the number of cups you are serving. Use 7g of coffee, which is one coffee scoop or one heaped tablespoon per cup – and note that this is “per cup”, not “per mug”. Use a kitchen measure to determine how many real cups you are making in order to know how much coffee to use.

Obviously a well written website will outperform a poorly written one, the above is one of numerous simple methods to assist in improving user experience.

Good reading material:

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

Welcome to the information age – 174 newspapers a day