aphic is the blog of sOL paNdieLLa-mCLeod

Monday, 18 July 2005 | DESIGNING FOR THE ONLINE READER

Usability News has just released the results of an online usability study which investigated the preferences of reading multiple-column or single column text for readers as well as the preferred line length when reading long articles.

Line length is an issue which I come up against constantly, more so now with the acceptance of larger screen sizes of 1024.

Now that we have more real estate to play with, some layouts seem a little over spacious. Specially if you are designing a fluid layout that displays a single column of text that is fixed at an ideal reading length.

According to one of the studies mentioned above, the preferred line length seems to be 35 cpl (characters per line) and 95 cpl.
I'm really surprised by the 95cpl, I would have thought the ideal would be 75cpl, because that is my ideal width.

I find that when I read lines of text that are 95cpl I have trouble following the next line of text, particular in long paragraphs of text.

Presenting articles in two columns seems to be the preference amongst fast readers, whereas slow readers prefer one column.

As a graphic designer who specializes in web and multimedia interface design, articles and studies such as this one are invaluable.
However you need to take into account the kind of users that participated in the study and compare that to who your actual users are.

It really does come down to knowing your audience and presenting them with the most appropriate design that caters for their needs and requirements.

Next time you're designing a site that features large areas of text, it may be worth creating multiple layouts and testing them on your target market to see which they prefer.
It's the most efficient way of finding out if your design is communicating effectively and providing the best experience possible for your audience.

Read the results of the usability studies.

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