{"id":508,"date":"2010-10-31T15:06:07","date_gmt":"2010-10-31T23:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/?p=508"},"modified":"2010-10-31T15:06:07","modified_gmt":"2010-10-31T23:06:07","slug":"website-usability-how-to-make-your-website-more-readable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/website-usability-how-to-make-your-website-more-readable\/","title":{"rendered":"Website Usability: How To Make Your Website More Readable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ask yourself this simple question: &#8221; Is my website readable to most everyone who would try to visit it? &#8221;\u00a0 While you think you may know the answer, chances are you don&#8217;t.\u00a0 For instance, did you know that most visitors to your site will have some type of disability or disadvantage?\u00a0 It will keep them from seeing all your site has to offer.\u00a0 Consider all these possibilities:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Physical disability<\/li>\n<li>Visual disability<\/li>\n<li>Hearing disability<\/li>\n<li>Technological disability<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whether it is their limbs, eyes, ears, computer, or browser that puts them at a disadvantage, you must take it all into account.\u00a0 Learning how to make your website more readable is fundamental in drawing, and continuing to service,\u00a0 your customers.<\/p>\n<h2>The Basics<\/h2>\n<p>These are the first things you have to make sure you are doing to assure readability.\u00a0 They may seem elementary, but a quick visit to a few websites will show you that they sometimes get lost in the shuffle.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Column width<\/strong> &#8211; Keep it short.\u00a0 Think like a newspaper and use narrow columns to convey the text on your website. Wider paragraphs are more difficult to read.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Text &#8211;<\/strong> A few things about this.\u00a0 Keep it brief, use simple words, and pay attention to the use of color.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t forget some people have older computers and lower resolution.\u00a0 Size does matter so nothing smaller than 12 on the text size.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grammar and Spelling &#8211; <\/strong>USE A <em>SPELLCHECKER<\/em>!\u00a0 I don&#8217;t care if you have a doctorate in grammar, use it anyway.\u00a0 Nothing will hurt your professional image like having spelling mistakes on your site.\u00a0 You must also proofread it and then ask a friend to do the same.\u00a0 <em>Spellchecker<\/em> doesn&#8217;t catch improper usage.<\/p>\n<h2>Advanced Techniques<\/h2>\n<p>These may not seem all that advanced, but the basics should be tackled first.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use alt attributes for every single image on your page.\u00a0 This will allow users who can&#8217;t or don&#8217;t want to load the images a chance to see what the image was about in the first place.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Make sure that your link titles are descriptive of the place they are headed to.\u00a0 Avoid using &#8220;click here&#8221; or &#8220;follow this link&#8221; and instead provide a short, relevant description of where you want to send them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Write your content as though it is being read by a typical senior in high school.\u00a0 That will keep you from using large words that no one understands, but also help you avoid sounding childish.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Include a text version for all of your audio and video files.\u00a0 For audio, make sure to put a transcript for the audio portion and make it available on the same page.\u00a0 Videos should be captioned to allow the hearing impaired to enjoy them as well.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>For The Elite<\/h2>\n<p>So, maybe you have already done everything described above.\u00a0 Here are a few more things for you to think about:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><em>Use a site map and search box<\/em>.\u00a0 Anything that helps the user quickly find exactly what they need is a great thing.<\/li>\n<li><em>Versatility is a must. <\/em>You have to ensure that your page can be read by all of the different browsers with equal ease.\u00a0 Making sure it is readable on mobile devices is a great idea as well.\u00a0 Your images must be equally clear no matter the size or quality.<\/li>\n<li><em>Keep it simple. <\/em>Flashing images, pop-ups, animations, etc. should be used sparingly as these easily distract the user from the task he\/she has at hand and cause frustration.\u00a0 Instead, simply show the viewer what you want them to see by using different text color, or font (i.e. links, headings, etc). You could also use the old standbys of bold (i.e. emphasis), italics (i.e. keywords), and underline (i.e. links).\u00a0 But be consistent as you do not want to turn your website into a circus of colors and fonts.<\/li>\n<li><em>Give the user some control. <\/em>Make sure they can cancel, back-up, change, or confirm any important action they are taking.\u00a0 Avoid frustrating them by creating descriptive error messages where necessary rather than sending them back to the homepage without them knowing why they are being sent there.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>So it doesn&#8217;t matter if you are just starting out, or have most of these techniques down cold.\u00a0 You must constantly be looking for ways to make your site more easily readable.\u00a0 Do this, and your customers will thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ask yourself this simple question: &#8221; Is my website readable to most everyone who would try to visit it? &#8221;\u00a0 While you think you may know the answer, chances are you don&#8217;t.\u00a0 For instance, did you know that most visitors to your site will have some type of disability or disadvantage?\u00a0 It will keep them&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[215,90,214,639],"class_list":["post-508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-usability","tag-column-width","tag-content","tag-readability","tag-usability"],"modified_by":"Jeff Lew","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}