A recent eye-tracking test found that smaller text on a web page actually encouraged site visitors to read, rather than scan, the page’s text.

Test results showed that, generally speaking, site visitors focused more on smaller text, actually reading the words, while they simply scanned the larger type fonts, looking for particular words that they were interested in.

When test participants viewed web sites that used headlines and stories of similar font sizes, the headlines and the stories were read more thoroughly. However, when the headlines used a font size much larger than the story itself, the headlines were scanned and the stories were only partially skimmed.

Another interesting point of the study: if the headline was underlined, the accompanying story was almost always skipped altogether.

Let’s look at a few examples:

This Is Headline One

This is story number one. See how big the headline is? That headline would have been scanned, and this story would only barely be skimmed.

This Is Headline Two

And this is story number two. Did you notice that the headline is the same size as the story? That would encourage site visitors to actually read this story.

This Is Headline Three

Almost every site visitor would skip this story because the accompanying headline is large and underlined. This story would not even be skimmed by most readers.

So, what does this mean to your own web site? Should you go through all your site pages, willy-nilly changing the font sizes?

Well, if you’ve been a client of mine for any length of time, you already know my mantra: Every Page Must Have A Purpose. Before you change any text, review the purpose of your page. Are you trying to convey in-depth information that needs to be read thoroughly? If so, you should adjust your headline, making it smaller and more similar in size to the story itself.

Are you going for the “swift kick” – wanting to express quick blurbs of information and get fast action on the part of your site visitor? Then articulate your main points with large headlines peppered throughout the page that can be scanned easily.

And above all, be sure to test every change you make to every page. Your site visitors are not some nameless, faceless testers sitting in a sterile eye-tracking laboratory somewhere in points unknown. Your visitors are your clients and prospects, they are real people in real situations and they may respond to your site changes very differently.

You might also be interested in:

• An Easy Website Split-Testing Schedule You Can Use
• Easy Email Tests to Get You Started
• Use Larger Fonts for Better Delivery
• Does Short Web Copy Outperform Long Copy?
• 7 Common Web Site Mistakes You Might Be Guilty Of

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 3:40 pm and is filed under Affordable Website Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.