Design Your Website for an Easy Read 

© Illa Maden November 2006

Design your website with readability in mind

Reading a book offline is fairly easy. Most books are primarily text with pictures added for interest. Specialty books such as those written about photography or perhaps books about birds will feature many pictures along with the text. Reading web pages is more challenging than reading the pages in a book, so consider readability as you design your website.

Web page design will certainly be affected by your topic, but don't make reading and viewing web pages a major job for your visitor. Leverage success. Look at successful websites and study the design of their pages in regard to readability.

Consider color. It is also a readability factor in website design

Whatever the topic of your website, design it for an easy read. Start by choosing a color scheme for your website design that is harmonious. Three major colors is plenty. Too many colors, are distracting and can make a web page unattractive. When considering colors for website design, think of what your website topic is. Study what feelings different colors may create. Green may be good for a website about gardening, but warmer colors may be more appropriate in a website designed as a food site.

The major spaces on your web page design should have a lot of white space between text, whether the background of your page is white or a color. White space (which may not actually be white) is just blank space that gives the eye a rest and makes it more readable while at the same time makes the elements of your page stand out. Website design is about common sense.

Here is an example of website design that is easy on the eye. Although the website has colorful elements in keeping with the main product, the design of the web page is very easy to read. Notice that although this is a very colorful website, there is a lot of white space, and the text is a good size and the website design allows for easy readability.

Set the text on the page to a size that is easy for the reader. Using more colorful or brighter colors can liven up a web page, but keep the brighter colors to areas that don't require long viewing periods such as navigation.

Break up text in your website design and create better readability

When your page contains lots of text break it up often with short paragraphs, again leaving what is referred to as white space to give the reader's eyes a rest and also to help the elements of your page stand out.

If you opt for a color background rather than the standard white, use a muted color with a text that stands out against the background. Your readers should not have to squint to read what is on your page. Most will just leave.

Here is an example of a website design with a muted background color for an easy read. While the background is not white, it is also not dark, and the text stands out and is also large enough for easy readability. Choosing a non white background lends warmth to a website that is centered around food, one of our creature comforts. Color can be very good, if chosen carefully.

Create readability and focus into your website design

And lastly, when designing websites for readability, sometimes less is more. Use judgement in how many elements you use in a given web page. Some websites are so crammed with banners, graphics, and advertisements that the main focus of a page is lost, and readers become confused or distracted. This does not make for a website with an easy read.

Consider what you have designed your web page to do. What is it's main purpose? Adding too many elements in one page will make it difficult to read and navigate. Build simple, easy navigation from page to page in your website, and make it easy to see the focus of every page. Make your web pages easily readable and easy to navigate through.  Design pages of your website for easy navigation, focus on the content of each individual page, and make the page design for an easy read.

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