Issues when Designing Text for the Web

Reading Online is Harder than Reading from Paper.

Reference: Google

Online reading uses projected light while reading from a document involves reflected light. Reading online tend to cause fatigue in the eyes because of the foreground and background contrast and difference in brightness level. In the printed document, the white background absorbs different amount of light which is why there is less eye fatigue.

Therefore, there are many different design suggestions when it comes to online publication.

1. Avoid Multicolumn Layouts

Print publications tend to have multicolumn. This is because it helps make the best out of all the space available. Print publication readers tend to read from the first column to the bottom of the first column and continue with the top of the second column. However, it is different when it comes to online publication. Readers rarely read from the top to the bottom of the page and if there are multicolumn in the online publication, readers will have to scroll up and down the screen. This will be hard for readers to understand the article as there is a constant need to scroll and look back on what was previously read. Therefore, online publications should have single columns and the type size and line-spacing should be adjusted in order to compensate for the long line of texts.

2. Reducing Line Length

White space is very important when it comes to online publication. With very little while space, it will look as if the page is cluttered and will make it hard to read. Both the left and right margin should have margins to increase whitespace. Margins will help split up the page and also provide with short text topics in the sidebar. This will help reduce line length so that readers will be able to scan through the article quickly. 

3. Indicating New Paragraphs

Online publications could benefit from having some extra spacing in the beginning of the article. This can help open out the pages making it easier for the readers. Spacing of one halfs can help make a difference to the page immediately. The closer the spacing between paragraphs, it will appear cluttered.

4. Divide and Conquer

Subheadings and sidebars help compress long documents into a manageable size. Subheadings help readers who prefer to scan through the article before reading to find the most important information. Headings should use different typeface, type size and type style in order to stand out. Using san serifs in bold will be good for headings as they help the information stand out. Besides, without subheadings on screen, the reader will be clueless when it comes to the information in the article as they want to be able to skim through important information.

5. Typographic Contrast

The importance of each information should be clearly identifies by just looking at the headlines, subheads and sidebars. The importance of each element in the article should be determined and clearly understood by just looking at the typeface, type size, type style and other decisions. 

Headlines should be less noticeable than titles as they are significantly smaller than the main titles. However, subheads should be smaller than the headlines. Parenthetical information are usually not important to all readers. Therefore, the type size should be smaller than the type size used for the body of the article.

6. Text Hyperlinks

Online readers will find it easier to flip through pages of the documents when hyperlinks are used. They are able to see what the topics are by just skimming through the article. You want to be able to help the readers move from the topics by just clicking on a subheading. Hyperlinks can also help readers by clicking a topic to check on the hyperlink rather than going through the entire article.

7. Do not use Thin & Ornate Typefaces

The typeface or type faces chosen in the publication but be taken into consideration that it might not be printed out before reading. Therefore, thin and ornate typefaces (“modern”) should not be used. Typeface that has different stroke thickness tend to be easier to read on paper than on screen. The thin serifs and strokes usually get lost when it is projected through an online document. Also, try to avoid ornate typefaces that are fancy as it tends to clutter the page.

8. Colours

Colours should always be used in restraining amount. It is because, strong impressions can be made by using just black and one or two other colours instead of using all the colours. Using black fonts, accenting dark and also bright colours, usually does the best results. Adding shades of the same colour helps instead of using multiple colours. Lighter and darker colours help bring the colours together instead of disrupting the document. Bright colours on an online document sometimes appear too bright and distract the readers. Areas that are largely covered with colours also cost waste as it forces the readers to spend more on ink-jet cartridges. You must always be considerate that most readers will be printing out the document before reading it and using different colours will cause the publication to appear in different shades of grey. This will cause the readers to lose interest.

9. Keeping Readers Informed

Readers tend to be informed by the headers and footers. The publication title is the most important and also the section and chapter that they are currently reading. Page numbers should be included into the online publication so that the readers will be able to keep track of the pages easily especially when they print it out. Besides, page numbers help track the progress of the publication. Without them, readers will be lost especially since they are unable to determine their progress.

10. Backgrounds and Visual Elements

Try to keep the designs as simple as possible especially when it is for online distribution. Avoid complicated special effects. This is because each readers printer might be different and so would the quality. Keep the effects that are safe and turn out simple and easy to read when the online document is printed out. 

Reference: Parker & Roger, C 2003, Designing Documents for Web Distribution, Looking Good in Print, Scottsdale, Ariz, Paraglyph Press, Ch. 14, p. 265- 293.