Week 10 Page 6: Readability Basics

Readability Basics

Do you still remember the definition of readability? 

READABILITY refers to how easy it is to read large quantities of text in paragraphs based on the designer's font and formatting choices.

Readability is impacted by the formatting and design decisions you make. You can select a perfectly legible typeface but make it totally UNreadable.

Look at the two examples below that demonstrate how you can take a legible typeface like Verdana and make it unreadable. Would you want to read a whole page of content like the second example?

Readability is a critical concern on the web because so much of the web contains written content. If you want your web site visitor to read the content, you have to make it as readable as possible. The bottom line is:

"If you can't read it, then neither can anyone else!"

On the image slide at the top of this page (and on the slides that follow) are some basic guidelines for making sure that your type is readable. Although you can't guarantee that type will look the same on every computer, you can do your best to avoid some of the worst readability pitfalls: illegible typefaces, serif type (when you could designate sans serif), colored type, excessive amounts of bold, italic and caps, long lines, short lines, busy or poorly contrasting backgrounds etc.

Readability Example #1:

What do you think about readability of the screen shot of the following site? Does it follow most of the guidelines provided in the slide image above?

Readability Example #2:

How does the site below rate for readability? What is it about the choice and handling of the type that makes it so difficult to read? (Hint: think typeface, alignment, type color, line length, background...)