Week 3i: How users read on the Web

In this week's lessons, we will look at the main differences between reading on paper and reading on the screen, and how users read on the Web.

Which would be faster - reading text on a piece of paper or reading text on the screen? Discuss what you think with your classmates.

Activity: Look at the following pages. What can you say about them?

Set A1

Set A2

Set B1

Set B2

Set A pages are _________ because _________.

Set B pages are ________ because __________.

How Users Read on the Web

They don’t, really…

79% of participants scanned a Web page trying to pick out a few sentences or even parts of sentences to get the information they want, while only 16% read word-for-word (according to study by web usability expert Jakob Nielsen)

Web users avoid thinking and are often impatient – they expect conventions (eg, if it looks clickable, and is not, they will get very annoyed!); Steve Krug – Don’t make me think!

If users wanted to read a document, they often prefer downloading and printing it to read the print version.

Many users do not bother to scroll down to read beyond the given frame.

Users jump around the web (often encouraged by hyperlinks, links to other pages on the same website, and external links to other pages)

Some users only read the link texts (which are highlighted or underlined and hence capture attention).

Web users look at text before images (as compared to images before text in print newspapers, according to study by Stanford University).

Users don’t always enter a site via the Homepage

Why do people scan more than they read online? Why is it harder to read text on the screen?

Possible reasons:

Reading from computer screens is tiring: Reading online is about 25% slower than reading from paper – could be due to eye strain, fuzzy text, etc.

Many distractions on the Web: Each page is competing with others for users’ attention. Users don't know if the page they are on is what they need, and it’s easy to click and move on to something else in search of better information.

Long, scrolling pages are tiresome: Users prefer text to be short and to the point. Computer screens also show less text than paper, which does not allow users to get a sense of the entire text and where they are, so they often click to move on.

Web as user-driven medium: Users feel that they have to click and move on, and want to feel that they are active on the Web.

Modern life is hectic: People are impatient and often don't have time to work hard for their information.

Marketing language is overlooked: Users hate anything that seems like marketing language and prefer factual information, thus they quickly scan and overlook text that contains much hyped-up language.

You may refer to Nielsen’s site: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html or Rachel AcAlpine’s Web Word Wizardry for more information.

F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content (Jakob Nielsen)

In an eyetracking visualization test, users were asked to look at different websites. In a few seconds, users’ eyes moved at fast speeds across the text in a web page.

A dominant reading pattern emerged and it looks like an F: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe:

First, they read in a horizontal movement, across the upper part of the content area. (The F's top bar)

Then, they read down the page a bit and then read across in a second horizontal movement that covers a shorter area than the previous movement. (The F's lower bar)

Finally, they scan the content's left side in a vertical movement. (The F's stem)

At times, the scanning pattern looks more like an E or an inverted L (with the crossbar at the top) but mostly, they tend to look like an F.

Heatmaps from user eyetracking studies of three websites. The areas where users looked the most are colored red; the yellow areas indicate fewer views, followed by the least-viewed blue areas. Grey areas didn't attract any fixations.

Important questions to consider:

What are the implications of users ‘reading’ web pages in a certain way?

What impact does it have on how web pages should be written and designed?