DISQUS

10e20: How Did You Screen-Read This?: Designing to Keep Attention

  • Hendry Lee · 1 year ago
    I often create list to help the readers scan through the content and make the first sentence bold (the essence of the entire bullet point).

    Also, white space can help relax the eyes and make the text seems to be less dense.
  • Doug Firebaugh · 1 year ago
    Great post-loved it. This is really rocking hot-and thank you for the great teaching. Lists seem to be the most popular still. Amazing --and love the quotes idea as well!
  • Patrick Winfield · 1 year ago
    @ Hendry- Lists seem to be king and I like the way you made your last sentence on its own- white space at work ;)

    @ Doug- thanks! Quotes usually always grab my attention first and then I dig into the body text if I like it.
  • Jonah Stein · 1 year ago
    Excellent use of user behavior information to write about usability! Its it one thing to talk about it, it is another to show it in action.
  • John Gillett · 11 months ago
    If an article includes an image, the caption is typically read first by most readers...

    Strong subheads work great for readers that want to skim for important info...If you're subhead catches 'em, they'll dive in and read more.
  • Lening · 10 months ago
    The internet made us aware not to read everything we can find. Especially the last couple of year user behavior has changed a lot regarding this matter.
  • Patrick · 9 months ago
    Always evolving ;) I agree Lening. Thanks for commenting!
  • bursa evden eve · 10 months ago
    thank you very much.
  • Patrick · 9 months ago
    Glad you liked it bursa evden eve!
  • Mexabet · 9 months ago
    Yes Patrick, a nice graphic that relates to the story is a good way to keep attention. I wasn't paying much attention to it before, but I've learnt to do it better from you! This is an article that made me to rethink the way I write.
  • Patrick · 9 months ago
    Thanks Mexabet! Glad you were able to take something from this, and thanks for commenting ;)
  • Jesse M · 9 months ago
    I'm quite guilty of not completely reading all the content on a page. I really think this is one of the reasons that list posts do so well. Those special posts convey a lot of information very quickly, so the reader doesn't have enough time to lost interest.
  • Patrick · 9 months ago
    I agree Jesse M, I rarely read a whole article through without first skimming in or reading it in chunks first- then going back to the top ;) Thanks for commenting
  • Pokeren · 9 months ago
    This is certainly true for large articles with many parapraphs. Most of the times when you enter a page after clicking on a result in the search engine. The first thing you do on the page is trying to find that piece of information. That's why search engines love good article structures just like this article. Actually, I haven't read it, I only screen-read it :)
  • Patrick · 9 months ago
    Well what are you waiting for ;)
  • Lost Backpacking · 3 months ago
    Since a child i have loved watching documentaries about the Great White Shark, the worlds most perfect killing machine.