Three Methods To Fix Reader Fatigue on Web Pages

by Sean D’Souza

Have you ever struggled to read the text on a web page? You're keen
to read the material, but not sure why you're struggling. And it's
not because the language is difficult. And it's not because the
topic is unknown. Yet there's something that's driving you batty.

It's something on the page itself, but you can't put your finger on
it. And it's causing a bit of a Reader Fatigue.

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So what is Reader Fatigue?
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Reader Fatigue is a scenario where something on the page is causing
a bit of grief to the reader. They desperately want to read what
you're saying but a bit of tiredness creeps in and then they give
up. And off they bouncity-bounce to the next web page--the web page
that isn't so tiring.

And what's interesting is that you can quickly remove this factor
of Reader Fatigue by considering three core issues.

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But before we get started on removing Reader Fatigue...
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...Let's get one thing straight. What I'm about to tell you may sound
like a grammar lesson. Well, it is a grammar lesson in a way, but
not quite. It's more of a conversion lesson.

If your customer gets tired reading your articles, or your sales
page, they just leave. And if they leave--heck I don't have to tell
you what happens--you've lost a customer. And you've lost a customer
over a simple matter. A matter that can easily be fixed.

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So let's examine three issues that you can fix right away:
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Issue 1: Constraining the thought to one idea.
Issue 2: Width of the line.
Issue 3: Avoiding chunky paragraphs.

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Issue 1: Constraining the thought to one idea.
===============================================

The rule is simple. Keep your sentences down to 15-25 words at
best. This is because a sentence with fewer than 25 words usually
contains one thought. And when there's just one thought in the
sentence, the reader can quickly grasp the thought and move on to
the next sentence. And the next. And the next.

Long sentences tend to be long because the writer is unable to
restrain their thoughts, and they just plough on relentlessly, not
knowing where to stop, till finally they stagger to a halt, and you
get a sentence like this one: where the reader has forgotten what
you were saying in the first place.

Now of course you don't write sentences that are sixty words long,
but it's easy to slip into sentences that are 35-40 words. After
all 35-40 words are just two lines on your word processing program.

So the easy way to restrain your thoughts is to focus on your word
processing program when typing. If your sentence is streaming
across the width of the page, then you've probably written about 15
words. If your sentence is going to 25 words, that's about a line
and a half on the word processor. It's now time to put a full
stop. And start a new sentence.

By putting full stops in your sentence it's easy to take a
lonnnnnnnnnng sentence and restrain the thought.

E.g.
Long sentences tend to be long because the writer is unable to
restrain their thoughts. They just plough on relentlessly. And
never seem to know when to stop. Then finally they stagger to a
halt. And you get a sentence like this one: where the reader has
forgotten what you were saying in the first place.

So yeah. Keep sentences short.

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This takes us to the second factor of Reader Fatigue: The width of
the line.
===============================================

If you look at your newspaper, you'll notice something quickly. The
newspaper is divided into columns. And the width of the line
doesn't go past eight or nine words across. This width restraint is
put in for a reason. It allows your eye to read, get some breathing
space and then go to the next line.

The width of your web page text needn't be as constrained, but not
much wider than 15 words wide. An average web page can easily
accommodate about 30 words of text on one line. And putting 30
words of text in one line is a big mistake. And it's a mistake
because the text becomes tiring. It's hard to read.

The way around this problem is to make sure you split your web page
into two or three columns (Ask your web designer if you don't know
how to do this 'split'). The column you most want to focus on is
the text column. How many words do you have in your main text
column? If it's 15 words or thereabouts, then you're ok. If not,
you need to fix it right away.

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And once you're done fixing those two issues, let's examine the
third issue: chunky paragraphs.
===============================================

Magazines and newspapers work with restricted space, so they often
have chunky paragraphs. But web pages don't have restriction issue.
And it's in your best interest to take advantage of this
unrestricted space by breaking up your paragraphs.


And here's the reason...

When the reader looks at your page, all they see is a waterfall of
text. If you have long, dense paragraphs, the material on the page
looks intimidating. An intimidating page is more likely to drive a
customer away. What's sad is that this problem can easily be fixed
by making your paragraphs less dense.

And the way to make it less dense is to restrict your paragraphs to
about 4-6 sentences in all. Once you've put in about six sentences,
just put in a break and create a new paragraph. This break gives
the reader some breathing space and visually it's far less
intimidating.

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Ok, time for a summary:
===============================================

1) Constrain the thought to one idea: keep sentences down to 25
words at best.
2) Check the width of the line on the web page. About 15 words.
That's it.
3) 4-6 lines in a paragraph is enough. Move to the next paragraph
and create breathing space.

Some of these changes are easy to make going forward, and some of
them may need some going back to edit your existing web content.
It's well worth the trouble to make the time to implement these
changes.

Because as I said: This ain't about grammar. It's about conversion.
If you drive a customer batty with your web pages, you only have
yourself to blame.

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Have you used any of these methods to fix reader fatigue on your web pages? What other methods have you tried?