[thelist] Eye flow online?

Sarah Adams mrsanders at designshift.com
Mon Jul 24 14:11:29 CDT 2006


> Can anybody point me to a good article on content engineering for the
> web and information on the eye flow when reading online?
> I recall reading something saying that people read differently online
> as they do when reading from print...is that correct?

Here's some search terms that might be helpful:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&q=reading+computer+screen&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=&cat=&meta=&num=&ie=utf-8&q=format+online+reading

This comes up in one of the searches:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/whyscanning.html
And links to:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

The main thing I remember about the difference between print and screen
reading is that serif fonts are recommended for print and sans-serif
fonts are recommended for screen. There are probably other good tips
floating around out there as well, and probably a lot of concepts
translate from print to screen reading, e.g.:
- people read faster if their eye doesn't have to travel too far left to
right, so narrow columns of text are easier to read
- larger text is easier to read - this is even more important for screen
reading, as people's eyes tend to get more tired reading from a screen
- good contrast between background and text colour makes the text easier
to read

-- 
sarah adams
web developer & programmer
portfolio: http://sarah.designshift.com
blog: http://hardedge.ca



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