Comments on: Highlighted Links and Improving Web Readability: People are lazy

By: Let’s Be Clear: There IS A Page Fold :: HTMList.com

Let’s Be Clear: There IS A Page Fold :: HTMList.com — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 10:30:51 +0000

[...] reality is that the science of user attention is a tricky one, and more of an art than anything. Heat maps and eye-tracking studies frequently show huge [...]

By: Collaborative Idiocy: Intrigo and the Wiki-As-A-Company-Website Approach :: HTMList.com

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:26:04 +0000

[...] #2—I didn’t even notice that they had a section ON the Wiki about the Wiki (people skim wiki-style articles): This wiki is one of the tools we use to communicate with each other, and so [...]

By: Chris Cardinal

Chris Cardinal — Thu, 22 May 2008 00:24:57 +0000

I found it interesting that a few people on the Digg post thought that the highlights *encourage* skimming. I think that it’s fair if it further pushes people to read the content around each of the anchors. But they were saying that it was more distracting…

Interesting, but I think it’s by-and-large effective for most people and they end up reading enough around the anchors for context, even if they don’t think they did. (The “anchors” up above don’t provide too much context on their own so you have to read around them.)

Good discussion though, thanks for your input!

By: Mark Alan Effinger

Mark Alan Effinger — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:25:11 +0000

I have to agree with about 80% of this material.

Popular in most direct mail copy, bold, italic and serif fonts are keys to readability and conversion.

And short paragraphs. Definitely short paragraphs.

We’re just now exploring highlights aka 37Signals. The idea is conceptually sound.

The only disagreement would be in regards to serif fonts for on-screen reading. Until monitors have the pizel density and flat brightness to keep it clear, I look to Apple as the cue: The kings of Garamond (a wonderful serif font) moved away from the serif in their web presence.

Great site and great focus by the way.

Some folks we also believe extend this process a bit are http://www.FutureNowInc.com. Their Persuasion Architecture adds languageing to match Myers-Briggs personality types; and natural language anchor tags to keep navigation within the context of the copy.

Great work, folks. Let’s touch base soon. I can see a couple of areas where we could compliment each other’s work.

Well done, and a great contribution to the usability world.
Mark Alan Effinger
http://www.RichContent.tv

By: Shycon Design

Shycon Design — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:07:13 +0000

Excellent post. Skimming is just something every writer has to deal with on the web. The tips in this article are great, especially the first one. Prioritize your content, because the first few lines are going to determine if someone stays to read your article or not.

By: Loves Threadless–The Unofficial Threadless Fan Blog » Listen to our web-development rambles: the Synapse Studios blog

Tue, 20 May 2008 21:46:20 +0000

[...] also just finished writing a piece on web readability, so be sure to check it out as [...]