Every year, we see a rise in mobile phone website traffic compared to traditional means like web browsing. The number of people who own smartphones has gone up, so, naturally, the number of people that find information on their smartphones has also gone up. In 2018, 52.2 percent of all website traffic worldwide was consumed on a smartphone (Clement, 2019).
The producers of online content must think about their website’s appearance and readability in relation to the viewers’ eyes. These eyes are usually looking that the content on a smartphone, not a web browser.
If more and more people are accessing information with their mobile devices, the content must fit inside the mobile device’s dimensions. In addition, the content must be engaging, informative and appealing to the eye; otherwise, viewers are going to close the tab and search for something else.
There are many tips and tricks content creators can use to make their websites, blogs, stories or other outlets easy to read and understand. Matt Cronin of Smashing Magazine**LINK created a list to highlight important parts of readability and how to effectively execute the different aspects of typography.
Web Typography Terms
Hierarchy – defining how a reader navigates the content (headings throughout the body)
Contrast – good contrast of text makes it easier on the reader’s eyes
Line Height – space between individual lines of text (makes text more scannable)
Line Length – number of words per line
A lot goes into reading, and various layouts, colors, words and other factors can influence a reader’s experience.
“’The contrast of pixels, the layout of the words, the concept of scrolling versus turning a page, the physicality of a book versus the ephemerality of a screen, the ability to hyperlink and move from source to source within seconds online—all these variables translate into a different reading experience,”’ (Konnikova, 2014).
In my opinion, clutter is at the top of the list when it comes to poor readability. In On Writing Well, William Zinsser claims clutter to be the “disease of American writing” (Zinsser, 2006). If I am reading a wordy story or blog, I lose track of the content and only focus on the extra words that should not be there.
Readable vs Unreadable
A hot topic in college athletics right now is about student-athletes getting paid for their likeness and athletic ability. There is a distinct divide across the country on whether or not student-athletes should be getting paid for the money they bring to their respective universities.
I am not here to argue that issue, but rather examine two different articles about the topic. The first is an article posted in 2017 by CollegeXpress, which seems to be a platform for high school students to research information about colleges. The second is an article from Forbes written in 2014.
The CollegeXPress article had a lot going on, visually. There were various colors, fonts, ads and a video at the beginning of the article. I would argue that the font was too small for a reader on a computer. The mobile version was even worse – large paragraphs and small fonts made it difficult to read.
The Forbes article also had ads, but I was more comfortable and engaged reading the article because it was left justified and in a smaller column. Having the line length shortened to half of a computer screen makes it easier to read and scan because the reader can fly through the lines without losing place.
Marc Edelman’s article on Forbes was also formatted as a list. He listed 21 reasons for why student-athletes are technically employees and should be allowed to unionize. Having detailed explanations listed out instead of hefty paragraphs definitely improved the readability.
The mobile version was also formatted better than CollegeXPress’s with a larger font and a larger line height.
As we can see, typography and readability are important as a content creator and distributor. In this case, both of the articles above were relaying similar messages, but the execution for each was very different. The formatting of each article directly impacted how interested I was in reading and digesting the information. As a tip, content creators should always keep in mind that hierarchy, contrast and line height/length are important formatting tools that can help improve the execution of the article.
References
Edelman, M. (2014, Jan. 30). 21 Reasons why student-athletes are employees and should be allowed to unionize. Retrieved fromhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/marcedelman/2014/01/30/21-reasons-why-student-athletes-are-employees-and-should-be-allowed-to-unionize/#30f8673b8d05
Clement, J. (2019, July 22). Percentage of all global web pages served to mobile phones from 2009 to 2018. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/241462/global-mobile-phone-website-traffic-share/
Cronin, M. (2009, March 18). 10 Principles of readability and web typography. Retrieved fromhttps://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/03/10-principles-for-readable-web-typography/
Martinez, M. (2017, March). Should college student-athletes be paid? Both sides of the debate. Retrieved from https://www.collegexpress.com/articles-and-advice/athletics/blog/should-college-student-athletes-be-paid-both-sides-debate/
Zinsser, W. (2006). On writing well: The classic guide to writing nonfiction. HarperCollins Publishers. New York, N.Y.
MAGGIE PRUITT 