Scan not read – repeat again – Scan not read

Jakob Nielsen does it again. He sends me a newsletter that I cannot help reading and then blogging about.

This is not a specific 50-plus posting, but as applicable to them as any other age group. Nielsen’s research shows that on average users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is the more likely figure.

Another research study is used to provide the data for Nielsen’s conclusions Not Quite the Average: an Empirical Study of Web Use. If you don’t mind the hassle of registering you can also download this paper.

The next time you are sitting in meeting, debating if you should use word A or B remember that most people don’t give a damn because they will not read it. Creating text for web sites is more like painting pictures than crafting exquisite prose. Dick Stroud