Low-Literacy Users on the Web. Reading on the Web Most web users read as little as they can They...
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Transcript of Low-Literacy Users on the Web. Reading on the Web Most web users read as little as they can They...
Reading on the Web
Most web users read as little as they canThey scan the page, picking out
important words and sentencesUsers scan for meaningful subheadings,
highlighted text, and bulleted lists.However, low-literacy users read
websites completely differently
Low-Literacy Users
Low-Literacy Users can read, but have difficulty doing so
According to the U.S. Department of Education's National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 43% of the U.S. population has low literacy.
Although they use the internet less than higher-literacy users, Jakob Nielson estimates that 30% of web users have low literacy
Low-Literacy Users
Low-literacy users can’t understand text by glancing at it. They must read word-for-word
Because they focus so much on the words, they miss objects outside of the flow of the text
Scrolling is also a problems because these users are unable to scan to re-find their place
TOO MUCH TEXT
Too much text will turn off any user, but a low-literacy user will start skipping text, looking for the next link. Because of this they will miss important information.
Navigation
Navigation becomes difficult because low-literacy users must read each option carefully, or else skip over it altogether
Imagine how you would feel upon entering this site for the first time
Search
Searching is also difficult for low-literacy users for two reasons: They have difficulty spelling
the query terms They have difficulty
understanding search results, because they “typically show weird, out-of-context snippets of text”
These users typically choose the first hit on the list
What Can We Do?
Some sites are targeted at higher-literacy users Corporate sites Science and technology sites
However, many sites must target a larger audience and focus on low-literacy learners Government sites Health sites Mass-market commerce sites (Amazon.com)
Improving Usability
Simplify the textOn the homepage, use text aimed at a 6th
grade reading levelOn other pages, use 8th grade level text
Improving Usability
Prioritize information Place the most
important information at the top of the page
Place other important information above where the user needs to scroll to see it
Improving Usability
Streamline the page design Place important
content in a single main column
This guideline also helps low-vision users and users connecting through small devices such as their phones
Improving Usability
Simplify navigationPlace main choices in a linear menuDon’t make users scan the page to find their
options
Case Study
In one case study, Jakob Nielson found that making these changes to a pharmaceutical site: Improved the success rate of low-literacy users by
36% Improved the success rate of high-literacy learners
by 25% Decreased the total task time of low-literacy users
from 22.3 minutes to 14.3 minutes Decreased the total task time of high-literacy users
from 9.5 minutes to 5.1 minutes
CASE STUDY
Low-literacy users increased their performance by an amazing 135%
Higher-literacy users also saw increased performance and satisfaction with the site
Everyone benefits when a site improves its usability