What writers & others say
“Think index cards, not toilet paper.”
— Jeff Herrington, president, Jeff Herrington Communications
“A hyperlink is a promise.”
— Shel Holtz, Holtz Communication + Technology
“Sometimes, users do read down an entire page. It does happen. Rarely.”
— Jakob Nielsen, usability expert
“User attention eventually peters out. The further down the page users go, the less time they generally spend on each additional information unit.”
— Jakob Nielsen, usability expert
“It’s as if users arrive at a page with a certain amount of fuel in their tanks.”
— Jakob Nielsen, usability expert
“As they ‘drive’ down the page, they use up gas, and sooner or later they run dry. The amount of gas in the tank will vary, depending on each user’s inherent motivation and interest in each page’s specific topic. Also, the ‘gasoline’ might evaporate or be topped up if content down the page is less or more relevant than the user expected.”
— Jakob Nielsen, usability expert
“Scrolling still reduces usability. But all design involves trade-offs, and the argument against scrolling is no longer as strong as it used to be. Thus, pages that can be markedly improved with a scrolling design may be made as long as necessary, though it should be a rare exception to go beyond three [screensful] on an average monitor.”
— Jakob Nielsen, usability expert
Cut Through the Clutter Online
It’s 48% harder to understand information on a smartphone than on a laptop. So how do you make your writing style easy to understand — even on the small screen?
Learn how to write readable web pages that don't overwhelm mobile readers at Reach Readers on the Small Screen — an online web-writing workshop on Nov. 2-30.You’ll learn proven-in-the-lab best practices for increasing web page usability up to 124% … how to pass a simple test for writing paragraphs visitors can read on mobile … and how to avoid making visitors “visibly angry” at verbose sites that waste their time.
Save up to $100 with our group discounts.