DES 3.2 - Prioritise information, maximise readability and scanning

Recommendations

• Prioritise the most important information:
  • Place important items high in the page (above the 'fold') to minimise the need for scrolling:
    • Screen reader users will also be presented with this information earlier;
  • Put the most important information first in links, titles, phrases:
    • This will emphasise the uniqueness of the item and aid quick comprehension.
• Enhance content for scanning:
  • Structure using short descriptive headings and sub-headings,
    • Communicate the structure visually e.g. larger to smaller as you go down the levels of subheadings
    • Ensure the developer knows the levels as they should code these using special tags (h1, h2, h3 etc,)
    • Try to avoid skipping levels;
  • Use good chunking and spacing to create 'conceptual units' of related content;
  • Use short paragraphs and sentences;
  • Use lists instead of long, comma, separated- sentences;
  • Add relevant tables and diagrams to break up 'walls of text'.
• Style for readability:
  • Left align all body text:
    • Do not right, centre or justify - this makes it hard to read especially for some people with reading difficulties like dyslexia;
  • Use bold and italic sparingly:
    • Highlight key words and key phrases
    • Do not bold or italicise whole paragraphs;
  • Avoid fancy fonts:
    • Verdana and Arial are almost universally available, and they are good for online reading;
  • Avoid ALL CAPS, blinking text;
  • Do not use underline for anything other than links.
• Do not use ascii art:
  • If for this cannot be avoided provide a description of it and a link to bypass it:
    • Otherwise screen reader users will be presented with a jumble of incomprehensible characters.

Examples