INL – News

Having a website is only effective if the content of the site is easily readable for visitors. Otherwise, even great content will not be able to do its job. While this may sound very basic, readability is a major issue that a high percentage of websites struggle with. Reading from a screen can be difficult, so readability should be a primary concern during design.

Here we will discuss some of the most important factors that will determine the level of readability for websites.

Spacing

Spacing is a big issue online. Many times too much text and too many images are crammed in to small areas, which makes it very difficult for the text to be read. When it comes to readability, less clutter equals more effective text.

Whitespace or negative space is a big key. It may seem like wasted space, but it’s actually allowing everything to have a greater impact. Less is more.

Font Size

Some of your visitors may have a hard time reading small text, or even normal sized text. They may need to increase the font size in order to be able to easily read it. If you are styling your text by using ems or percentages instead of pixels to determine the font size, all of your visitors will be able to adjust the size of the text.

Also, use font sizes to emphasize certain text, such as headlines. Increase the size of certain lines will help it to stand out, but this is only effective if it is used in moderation.

Font Choices

When working to make a site readable, it is best to stick to web-safe fonts like Arial and Georgia. Other fonts may look nice, but you will not have control over which visitors are able to view it in your favorite font. Newer technologies like sIFR do make it possible to use a much wider variety of fonts.

You can easily damage the readability of a site by using too many different fonts. No more than two or three fonts should be used on a page in oder to have some consistency.

Line Width

As modern desktops and laptops are coming with higher-resolution displays, and widescreen monitors are very common, websites are often being designed with more width than they were just a few years ago.

Even on wider websites, text should not stretch the full width of the page. In general, about 600 to 700 pixels in width is the maximum that will still allow for good readability. However, very narrow columns can also cause readability issues.

Bold Text

It is a known fact that bold text stands out when compared to text with a normal weight. Use bold to make an impact when needed, but don’t use too much bold or it will have no impact and make it hard to read.

Distractions

Text can only have an impact when there aren’t other things distracting the visitors attention. Using less in your design will help to keep the focus on the text, and only use text that has a purpose.