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The Internet has forever changed what reading is and means in our society. We first started with stone slabs etched with markings. As technology advanced, we began to print words on paper and bound it together with soft and hard covers. Today, we carry devices that allow us to access not only books, newspapers, and magazines but also blogs, opinion pieces, and social media. This pales in comparison to thirty years ago when the Internet hadn’t been released and there was only print available. The consumption of digital media plays a major role in how people currently read.
Content can be released with a simple click of a button, spread to millions of people within minutes, and cause a cascade of reactions. This immediacy has also shortened our attention span and it is uncommon for someone to read an article in its entirety. There can be several factors for this, but one of the main reasons is that the content is not readable. If it is distracting, difficult to see, or formatted unpleasantly, the reader will scroll or click away. People are more likely to stay on a page and read through if it is aesthetically pleasing, broken down into chunks with headers, and does not overwhelm the eyes.
An Example of Good Readable Content: When Students Are Traumatized, Teachers Are Too
Minero’s post on Edutopia contains many qualities that deem it as readable content. There is an intriguing yet simple image at the top of the post. The font is easy to read due to its style, size, and contrast with the background. There is enough white space on either side of the text, which allows the eye to “rest” and does not distract from the article.
Furthermore, the content is broken down into sections with bold headers. Each section is roughly the same size; none are too long or too short. Minero includes in-text citations that allow the reader to explore topics further. However, she doesn’t overburden the reader with too many, which could cause them to become disengaged. Small graphs or photos add additional breaks within the text, along with pulled quotes to emphasize vital points.
The article contains real-life events that help the reader connect with what they are about to read. It offers simple advice and guidance on how to solve the issue which leaves the reader satisfied with a solution.
An Example of Bad “Readable” Content: How Google wrecked its own website by replacing search results with ads and their own products and provoked massive US anti-trust case that could be the first step towards its destruction
Ouch. Crane’s 31-word headline is enough for some people to immediately click away. If not the headline, then the 10 ads that pop up will. Some of the ads cover the content and are difficult to close, leaving the reader to skip sections entirely.
Crain’s post contains minimal text. Instead, she opts for a few small sentences in each section that describe the embedded screenshots. The details of the anti-trust case, which is arguably the most important part of the article, are found toward the end of the post, after a dozen large screenshots. These screenshots take up a lot of space, which then requires a lot of scrolling. The captions are bold, resembling the headers, which makes it difficult to determine the article from the captions.
Additionally, the headers are the same size as the rest of the text, defeating the purpose of including them. The content is compressed together with little white space. The eyes become tired from looking at everything on the page and it’s not worth the hassle of trying to figure it out. They attempted to use lists, videos, graphs, and pictures but nothing is formatted correctly, which adds to the messy look of the post.
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