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Recently we have discussed findability and usability, in the context of custom web design and with reference to W3C compliance. Now let us take one more step, which may be more fun for you than it is for me. And that is readability. The study of how users read is helpful if you want to hire good website designers for your customers, or to build good websites for your customers. But it is a little tough on those of use who try to write for websites.

The usability studies, famous and obscure, all come to some pretty similar conclusions: users do not want to read much, in fact they will not read much. If you do not make your content easy to scan and concise, they will skip it. It is sad but true. The accepted average value is that you would be fortunate if the users will average reading more than one-quarter of your carefully chosen words.

The way the words are arranged matters too; it matters quite a lot, really. I consider that I am writing these words for an audience that is interested enough to read on, or they would not even have gotten this far. But your web designer will know, and put into effect the rules for arrangement of content. They will know how to put your most vital content in the right place, and will put any excess words of mine in the filler sections, or cut them entirely.

There are detailed eye-movement studies, and you would do well to heed them if you design pages or hire the services of page designers. Keeping that twenty-something percent reading value in mind, you want your most important content to be read and retained. So put that text where they are most likely to look. The rest if for the dedicated readers that really want the details.

If you are writing or designing pages for teenagers, you really had better keep it short and sweet. They will not hang about and waste their valuable time reading a bunch of dry verbiage. They want to find and to do, then move on to the next area of interest.

The older citizens will give you a bit more of a chance at them, and dedicated professionals will also hang in there and listen to what you have to say, to a certain extent at least.

These things we have been discussing go well together and can really help you make the right choices in designing or choosing a designer. The W3C has conveniently worked up a set of standards that help us stay on track, especially as regards findability and usability. The readability stuff is easy to find, and well worth the time reading or the money to attend a few seminars.

Your qualified custom designer will have already done the research. A professional designer will be able to build you a site that is findable, usable, readable, W3C compliant, and ready to work for you and your customers.