How users really use the Web!
When we are creating sites, we act as though people are going to pore over each page, reading all of our carefully crafted text, figuring out how we’ve organized things, and weighing their options before deciding which link to click.
What users actually do most of the time is glance at each new page, scan some of the text, and click on the first link.
FACT OF LIFE#1
Users don’t read pages. They scan them.
Users don’t read pages. They scan them.
One of the very few well-documented facts about Web use is that people tend to spend very little time reading most Web pages. Instead, they scan (or skim) them, looking for words or phrases that catch their eye )
The exception, of course, is pages that contain documents like news stories, reports, or product description, where web users will revert to reading- but even then, they’re often alternating between reading and scanning.
For example, here is the description of a service I found at the service description page of a hotel booking site;
I think some aggressive pruning makes them much more use full.
The first sentence is just introductory happy talk. But it hardly helps the user what’s important in this piece of paragraph. Do we think that user is going to read the entire paragraph? Whose job is to let user know what’s important for him in this paragraph? Whoever it is, but it’s not the user’s job to know what’s important in this paragraph.
And just by being there, all the extra words suggest that user may actually need to read them to understand what’s going on, which often makes pages seem more daunting than they actually are.
Why do users scan?
Users are usually on a mission.
Most Web use involves trying to get something done, and usually done quickly, As a result Web users tend to act like sharks: They have to keep moving, or they’ll die. They just don’t have the time to read any more than necessary.
Users know they don’t need to read everything.
On most pages, users are really only interested in a fraction of what’s on the page. Users are just looking for the bits that match their interests or the task at hand, and the rest of it is irrelevant. Scanning is how users find the relevant bits.
Users are good at it.
It’s a basic skill: When you learn to read, you also learn to scan. We’ve been scanning newspapers, magazines, and books – or if you’re under 25, probably reddit, Tumbler, or Facebook – all our lives to find the parts we’re are interested in, and we know that it works.
The figure B is the thing that I think most in the difference how we think people use Web sites and how they actually use them.
Third Law of user experience design
Omit needless words.
Make it in bullet points what’s important for user
If you make it shorter and add bullets points for what is important for the user. It will also reduce the noise level of the page, because no one is ever going to read the whole paragraph.
It reduces the noise level of the page
It makes the useful content more prominent
It provides the user creature comfort.
It’s the Third Law of user experience design probably sounds excessive, because it’s meant to. Removing half of the words is actually a realistic goal; Users will have no trouble getting rid of half of the words on most Web pages. Without losing anything of value.
I’m not suggesting that the articles at WebMD.com or the stories on NYTimes.com should be shorter than they are. But certain kinds of writing tend to be particularly prone to excess.
