While digital content creators may be focused on the meat and bones of their assets, focusing on how they can make them more visible and rank higher in search engine results, they neglect the skin.
Content is still the king, but it’s the rest that make the king. The retinue (or “skin”) of digital content is web typography.
How much do your content formatting skills stand out? Do you look beyond headings, short paragraphs and visuals throughout your text? Did you also know that the usability of a web page can be affected by its math proportions and can make it difficult for visitors to navigate if they are unbalanced?
Here are a few small mistakes that can lead to a negative impression of your content. Let’s take a look at some math that can help you and your visitors understand your content, even if AI.
7 Digital Content Usability Factors That Will Kill You
We are not aligned correctly
The wrong spacing
Headings hard-to-see
Poor color-contrast ratio
False font size
Complex text structure
Large text fields
1 — Wrong Alignment
It’s amazing to see how many websites don’t care enough about aligning and continuing aligning their text contents center. Some attempt to align words manually while others employ a full justification. These methods don’t work well for great formatting.
Words can have different lengths. This means that even if the text is adjusted for your device, it will not be readable at other resolutions. It can lead to unnatural word spacing. The result is that your content appears amateurish and difficult for users to understand.
Aligning digital content left is the best option.
It is natural for most users read text left-to-right. It’s also compatible with the F-shaped pattern users online consider when scanning a page and deciding if it is worth reading.
Frayed right margins are better than random spacing between the words. The latter makes it impossible for readers to visually understand the information you provide in your content.
2 — Bad Spacing
This mistake concerns spacing between subheadings within your digital content. While this may seem insignificant, most web admins fail to pay attention when choosing a website’s theme.
Space between a subheading and the next should be more than space after it.
This formatting allows users to easily understand the content of each paragraph. Additionally, the entire content asset can be visually unified.
3 — Headings difficult to see
Without great headlines , digital authors know their content is worthless. They are not only helpful in SEO writing and help to improve search engine visibility, but also aid users in scanning your content for context.
Return to the F-shaped motif here
Subheadings make it easier for users to scan through content in 10 seconds. If they aren’t well written and easy to read, they won’t encourage page visitors to continue to read. This is how to make subheads easy to understand:
You may use a different font and/or color.
Make them bold.
Use subheadings to help readers understand your content.
Be clear and concise.
Even so, try your best to create subheadings compelling enough for readers to continue reading.
4 — Complex Text Construction
It’s hard to make original content today. There’s a lot to do.
But there’s an additional catch.
Long-form assets are created by creators to create 10x-quality content. These structures have many subheads that make it difficult for readers not to see all of the information. Instead, readers will become lost in your content.
Online users will not spend hours reading your text blocks. Today’s attention span is shorter than ever. There is a higher chance that they will leave your page quickly the more steps they take. This can affect its dwell time as well as bounce rate and other behavioral aspects.
Let’s compare:
Title – H2 H2 H2 H2 H2 H2 H2 H2
Title – Title –H2–H3–H3–H3–H3–H3–H3–H2
Title –H2–H3–H4–H4–H4–H3–H3–H2–H2–H2
The first structure is concise and clear. This makes it work best. The second text structure is fine as well. It allows readers to follow the flow and identify each block. The last one, however, is more complicated. This requires readers concentrate on what they are reading and how it affects their memory.
Digital content accessibility is best achieved by using the rule “the easier the better”.
5 — Poor Color-Contrast Ratio
You won’t want yellow or red text to be placed on blue or green backgrounds. However, color-contrast is essential in web page design because it improves readerability and helps users see the information.
Contrast and incorrect color combinations are a recipe for frustration and discouragement. They can also make it difficult to find the right content and leave your site. How to prevent this from happening:
It doesn’t matter what colors your brand uses or which color psychology principles you use to decide on the background for your pages, but choose a light, soothing color. It will make your digital content easier to read.
Use tools such GitHub for the best color-contrast settings on your web pages. Do not make it less than 5 percent. Why do black text and white backgrounds look the best? There is a great color-contrast relationship between black and white.
6 — Wrong Font Size
If your content is difficult to read, users will not be able access it. You can show disrespect by using fonts less than 12px on your website.
These are some guidelines:
Font size minimum 14px Experts suggest that the minimum font size for the web is 14px.
Avoid putting more than three font sizes onto one web page.
Consider fonts that represent your brand’s personality. typography psychology. Nickkolenda.com says that different fonts evoke different associations and emotions. You have the opportunity to influence this perception.
7 — Large Text Fields
Last but certainly not least, web admins neglect this important detail when formatting pages.
Text block line height and length.
It is a rule of web typography that follows the golden ratio. This means that all three dimensions (font sizes, line widths, and line hights) should match and look pleasing to humans. It enhances usability and the reading experience.
The golden ratio of 1.618 is the best, but it’s possible to calculate the right one for you website based on your font size. GRT calculators may be useful here: The larger your font size is, the more lines you need. Robert Bringhurst, who is also the author of The Elements of Typographic Style explains another formula.
Your web page will have a golden ratio if you use a font size (x) 30
50 – 75 characters are the ideal line lengths for a column of text. A longer line is more difficult to read and makes it harder to focus on what the content contains. A shorter line causes the eye’s to go back too frequently, which affects the reader’s rhythm.
The problem with too many lines is that it makes readers feel like they have more work. Too many lines can stress readers. They often start the next one before finishing the previous one. This means that they may not share any of the information you need.
Learn to Blog from Derek Halpern at Social Triggers.
If your full text is too long you can still catch readers’ attention in the introduction. You can use half-width images under headlines to aid in this area, such as the following:
It is also possible to have large text fields due to writing too many paragraphs. Web writers know this: Large text fields are a key indicator that users can read it. Visitors scan a text to determine if it is unstructured or difficult to see.
Most websites struggle with this issue. They limit paragraphs to 3-4 sentences or 1-2 sentences. It is a useful rule to remember if your resources are limited and you do not have the ability to calculate the above-mentioned ratio for your websites. (The above dimensions: font sizes, line widths, and spacing.
The number of sentences in your paragraphs will vary depending on how big your font is, what line width you use, and how much spacing you use.
Takeaways
The quality of digital content matters to users. But webmasters, designers and developers should not overlook its usefulness. No matter how knowledgeable and well-written your texts, no one will ever read them if it is visually difficult or confusing to see.
Content moderation are essential. You should also consider the mathematics behind web text design for better content conversion and usability. To learn more:
Align your texts left.
It is important to pay attention how spacing is done before and after subheadings.
Avoid complicated text structure.
All subheads must be visible
Check that the ratio of color contrast between text and background on your web page is not lower than 5:1.
Use at most 14px font for text content.
Calculate the golden proportion for your web pages based on three dimensions. Font size, line height, or line width.
Yes, it is true that genius is simple. However, those who make the most mistakes are the ones who win.