By Birger Agergaard

Go surfing on the net and see how different types of information are presented in web pages. Quite often, you will see that more effort has evidently gone into working with effects and fancy appearances than with creating a functional design. The text itself, which is ultimately the rea-son why you actually went to the web page, is typically long and unstructured and, therefore, difficult to read.

The same could be said about printed information. In general, designers in quite a few magazines are more concerned with attracting the right buyers than with ensuring that those buyers, once they have made their buy, will actually be able to understand anything.

"Crisp & Clear" has attempted to collect a few useful tips to help you ensure that all members of the population are able to read the information that you want to convey. Our goal has been to make the printed magazine "Crisp & Clear" and our website as accessible and well-arranged as possible without compromising the "catchy" element of the design.

We believe that you, the reader, are the best judge of this: please visit our homepage and let us have your comments!

The web page

Although Internet pages open up a variety of possibilities for information, this does not mean that you have freedom of choice with regard to the length of texts and "creative design". An international survey among web-site users states that 79 percent of the users of a test only "browse through" the text and only 16 percent actually read the text word for word.

The screen design expert Jakob Nielsen, of Sun Microsystems in the United States, who took part in making this survey, goes one step further, saying that the text should be up to 50 percent shorter than conventional printed texts, because the rate at which we read and perceive written material online is considerable slower than when the material is on printed paper.

So the rule is to compose brief texts and make a summary of them, if at all possible; to use practical blanks, sub-headings and display graphics that explain the contents of the text.

The next challenge is how to design the text itself in such a way that everybody can read it. Web designers tend to ‘pour in’ a lot of text, without bothering with the fact that a substantial part of the population has difficulties reading texts and that this very problem is aggravated when dealing with an online text.

Microsoft is one of the software manufacturers that enable users to change the font types and increase their sizes on web pages. Neverthe-less, the whole thing is made that much easier if you avoid the problem from the beginning, by choosing a readable font type for the screen.

Printed information

Although many of these guidelines also apply to printed information, there are additional factors worth considering.

One is the physical size of the magazine. Physically disabled people with reduced mobility in their arms have problems handling large magazines: A4 is a practical size.

The quality of the paper is also significant: if the paper is too thin, the material printed on the other side tends to show through, making it more difficult to read on the front of the page. Readability is further decreased if the paper is glossy.

For both printed information and web pages, you should avoid using italics and lettering in block capitals.

Tips for designing web pages

• If you use the right font size, the letters will not look ‘blurred’ on the screen. A 12 point font size is preferable for the visually disabled, for example.
  Experiment with different font types. On web pages, typefaces like Arial, Verdana, and Georgia are easy to read.
  
  
• Use a maximum of 80 characters per screen line and avoid lining up columns of text one next to the other.
  
  
• Remember that your website may be visited by blind and visually disabled users and choose a screen design that allows for screen readers to read captions and explanations about graphs and images out loud.
  
  
• Be sure to choose a good contrast for the screen background, e.g. black upon white or green upon white.
  
  
• If you absolutely have to include long texts, it should be possible for users to print them in a version that is easy to read. Avoid blinks and scroll texts. They create confusion and the screen reader cannot read the text aloud.

Tips for designing printed media

• Generally, the Antiqua font (with ‘feet’) is better than a sans serif typeface, because it makes the words more coherent, although sans serif fonts like Frutiger or Arial can also be used.
  
  
• The font size should normally be at least 12 point, although one other possibility is the one we are using in this magazine: 11 points, but with a large space between the lines, which has a positive effect on readability.
  
  
• Never use text in italics or block capitals.
  
  
• The line should never be more than 40 characters long.
  
  
• Text with a non-justified right margin (like this one) is more readable, both online and in print.
  
  
• Make sure you use a good contrast. Pictures or colours that appear behind the text often lead to confusion. A lightly coloured background (max. 20 percent colour) is acceptable.
  
  
• Leave several blanks or insert small headings when designing the layout for long articles. These could be meaningful captions, boxes for quotations and boxes for facts.

Published in Crisp & Clear No. 1, April 2000