They don’t. People rarely read a page word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual phrases, sentences, and words.
One of the next waves of innovation will be the one that combines real-time data analysis with significant scalability of usability in the product. These innovations will drive changes in how we manage large-scale infrastructure such as urban traffic, how we pay for electricity, handle paperwork, or relate to institutions from home — even how we prioritize our email.
So, in the effort to replicate some studies, I have put forward a central idea: usability is not pretty buttons, but fast, clear, and truthful text. Therefore, to test my theory, for a couple of months I have dedicated myself to understanding, with a bit of method, how users read what is presented to them on the internet. The data are very clear: 78 percent of people scan a web page (whatever it may be) looking for meaningful phrases, words, or sentences, while another 15 percent do it word by word — leaving 2 percent who neither read nor scan, but look at images.
As a result, every website that wants to succeed has to use scannable text by employing:
Highlighted words (bold, color changes, and links serve that purpose). Representative subheadings. Bullet lists. One idea per paragraph. The inverted-pyramid style: start with the end. Half the words used in regular texts. You also have to take into account the importance of credibility for web users, because we all know we cannot trust the content of many websites. Credibility increases with quality graphics, quality writing, and outbound links (links to other sites that show the author has done the homework and is not afraid of having what they say checked elsewhere). It is also vital to understand that users hate marketer-style promotional writing that uses terms like “the greatest that ever existed.” Users are busy and want the facts presented to them. Exaggeration makes our site’s credibility suffer.
MEASURING THE EFFECTS OF WRITING FOR THE WEB
To measure these claims, I developed five different versions of the same website, presenting the information through each of the possibilities I identified.
When analyzing these examples you can see that usability was much higher with concise text (58% better), with the scannable version (47% better), and finally when combining them (124% better).
Version: Marketer text. Sample paragraph: The city of Mérida is full of world-recognized attractions that draw large numbers of people every year without fail. In 1996 some of the most important places were: Palacio de Cantón (355,000 visitors), Kabah Archaeological Zone (132,166), Parque y Templo de Santa Ana (100,000), Natural History Museum (86,598), Izamal (60,002), and Cuzamá (28,446). Usability improvement: 0%
Version: Concise text. Sample paragraph: In 1996, six of the most visited attractions in Mérida were: Palacio de Cantón, Kabah Archaeological Zone, Parque y Templo de Santa Ana, Natural History Museum, Izamal, and Cuzamá. Usability improvement: 58%
Version: Scannable text. Sample paragraph: The city of Mérida is full of world-recognized attractions that draw large numbers of people every year without fail. In 1996 some of the most important places were:
- Palacio de Cantón (355,000 visitors)
- Kabah Archaeological Zone (132,166)
- Parque y Templo de Santa Ana (100,000)
- Natural History Museum (86,598)
- Izamal (60,002)
- Cuzamá (28,446). Usability improvement: 47%
Version: Objective text. Sample paragraph: Mérida has many attractions. In 1996, six of the most visited were: Palacio de Cantón (355,000 visitors), Kabah Archaeological Zone (132,166), Parque y Templo de Santa Ana (100,000), Natural History Museum (86,598), Izamal (60,002), and Cuzamá (28,446). Usability improvement: 27%
Version: Combined. Sample paragraph: In 1996, six of the most visited attractions in Mérida were:
- Palacio de Cantón
- Kabah Archaeological Zone
- Parque y Templo de Santa Ana
- Natural History Museum
- Izamal
- Cuzamá. Usability improvement: 124%
It is somehow surprising that usability improved by a good amount in the objective-language version (27%). One might normally have expected users to prefer that version, or at least that the data would have been very similar. However, after talking with some of them, you can understand that when users have to read marketer text they receive an additional mental load, because it is in their nature to doubt and therefore filter the promotional content in order to understand what is being said. For example, when told that Mérida is full of international attractions, their first reaction is: No, it isn’t. Cancún is not Mérida. That kind of thing distracts them, and that is how we lose their attention to our content.
The usability experience, or UX as it is known now, is the new business niche in culture. Many of the decision-makers I meet with, regardless of their industry, are promoting more emphasis on UX every day. This is a major shift, because five years ago this was not happening. Usability was not on the radar for most people, and many of us focused more on things like the technology used, security (which remains the philosopher’s stone of the present), and speed.