Web usability principle 4: Keep it short (and use white space)

Our 4th and final principle in our series on web usability is about keeping it short. This can be hard. You’ve spent ages crafting some great content and when you put it on the web page it’s way too long. The truth is your punters aren’t going to read it. They’ll scan it quickly and look for words or phrases that are useful. So make all your words and phrases useful and cut out the stuff you don’t need. Steve Krug’s book Don’t make me think which inspired these article targets two types of useless text: happy talk and instructions.

White Space by Dermot Kennedy, 2012

Happy talk is the welcoming introductory stuff at the top of a page which doesn’t tell you anything. Instructions try to explain how the website works but if your website is easy to use they are unnecessary – and nobody will read them anyway. Web users are looking for the important stuff so make it easy for them by ditching the stuff that doesn’t matter.

Going hand-in-hand with keeping your text short is avoiding the temptation to fill every free space on your page with more text or an image. Don’t do it – it will just add to the clutter! White space will give your site a clean look which will draw people to the important content and make it easier to read.