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That said, I am advising on a project for my sister-in-law. She has hired a web design firm to design her website to sell her service. They have actually advised her to limit the content on her page so a top to bottom scroll bar isn't produced saying too much content will confuse the viewer causing them to go elsewhere. My initial thought was are they going to test her page for every single screen resolution? There is going to be hardly anything there if her page is optimized for 800x600!
There probably is a delicate balance here. My website is a personal for my cats one and I have jammed packed the homepage with site update info, bios on the kitties and general information. Probably needs a revamp, but it works for me. Recently I happened to add the word "cow" to the page and picked up new traffic based on that!
Any thoughts on losing your visitors to too much content?
Kris
I see nothing wrong with scrolling as long as the content is styled appropriately.
Check out the "usability king" Jakob Nielsen's site: you have lots of scrolling. Confusing? NO. I don't agree with a lot of his stuff, but he knows how to organize content well.
Make good use of headings and paragraphs and there should be no confusion at all; that is, unless your target audience is under 14 years of age.
I'd give the major news publishers (like the NY Times, CNN, MSNBC, etc.) credit for knowing something about the behavior of content readers, and every news site I know requires vertical scrolling to read an article. At some point, of course, they do break the content into multiple pages. Can you imagine reading a lengthy NYTimes article if it were broken into single-screen chunks? It might take 25 clicks or more to read.
I've seen sites designed this way. If they have minimal content, it may work. But if I have to keep clicking to keep reading one topic, it's VERY annoying.
They have actually advised her to limit the content on her page so a top to bottom scroll bar isn't produced saying too much content will confuse the viewer causing them to go elsewhere.
I would disagree with that approach, especially if there was more to say - more content. The page length is something to consider; as a function of the design. But if that page has something to say then there is no reason to limit it to a single view without scrollbar.
If the page gets to be too long then it's time to add a link and move some content to another page. Likewise if the content covers several distinct topics.
I recently added 3 pages to my site. The first page is a description of what's to follow. The second page is a gateway to the 3rd page. The 2nd & 3rd page also have links to a help page for each. My concern was that I would lose people before they got to the 3rd page. So far I'm not seeing that. Now I need to be able to eliminate the first page so people don't have to go that route once they understand the process of the last 2 pages. It's a matter of editing, writing, and re-writing.
Of those 3 pages, the 2nd is rather long. It's really a list of links. Again, I don't think its put anyone off because it's too long. (It's about 2500px-3000px height)
I can understand the point of view of the designers. I have seen really long pages - but never saw the bottom of them. Why? Because there was nothing to convince me to keep reading. That, more than anything, should be the major objective. Put compelling copy on a page and let the page length sort itself out.
From a designers point of view (not that I'm an expert), if I see a short page I wonder why? Was there nothing more to add? Is the content somewhere else on the site?
For me, confusion doesn't enter enter into the equation until a lengthy page just rambles on aimlessly... sort of like some on my replies :)
grandpa
Vertical Scrolling is common and NEVER bothers anyone.
Infact, it is even MORE annoying to take a 1,500 article and break it up into 5 pages since it is a BITCH to print each page invvidually.
Too much content is not the matter, it depends on the quality of your content and your audience.
I would like to say that "Content is the King but web usability is his shadow". According to Jakob Nielsen's website, if you have a lot of content (such as 10 pages of the paper.) he suggest to reduce your content from 100% to 35-45%. This is because our user may not read all of our content (especially text). I understand that Jakob prefer to see the short page rather than scroll the page down.
However, I am working as a web editor for a magazine. I have a lot of original content on the magazine to transform it into e-content on the website.
Initially, I agree with Jakob that I should reduce the size of my content into 1-2 pages per a column. I ask my graphic designer about this and he/she agree with me to do so. But when I do the user analysis by my self, I found 40% of my user prefer to read a little bit longer content. They also need some picture, indent, bullet to help them read my content easier.
Hence, I do belief that I never lose my user when I put full content as seen as magazine. I think it depends on the quality of the content, the layout.
Moreover, the screen resolution of our user is higher and higher. For Windows XP user, I suggest them to use the Clear Type Technology for easier reading.
What do you think?
Kris, one place where I would agree with the "no-scroll" philosophy is important navigation choices. If the purpose of a page is primarily to guide the visitor to major content options or action links, then keeping everything above the break is a good idea.
So where IS the break (or "fold" in newspaper parlance)? There's disagreement about this, but I'd say most designers use 800x600 as their minimum design resolution for normal browsers (i.e., not including PDAs and other non-traditional browsers). There's still a sizable population (maybe 40%) at this resolution, while the 640x480 crowd has either vanished or has become accustomed to scrolling horizontally and vertically on just about every site they visit.
I know of design companies that will limit content on any given page to try and make the client build another page to bump up their over all spend.
I am not saying that this is the case at present, but its another factor that you should look in to.
Craig
while the 640x480 crowd has either vanished or has become accustomed to scrolling horizontally and vertically on just about every site they visit.
If only that were the case.
I'm not convinced that people with 640x480 have vanished. I still use that as my minimum target in web page design. I don't want to lose a sale because someone on an older computer wasn't able to easily follow the web site.
And, since one of my computers is 640x480, I know that a lot of sites are not well designed for that resolution. With many sites, it is not a matter of scrolling horizontally, because there are too many sites that just don't display properly at that resolution.
If I'm trying to buy something, I go somewhere else. It's not that hard to make a web site that looks good at 640x480, and if a site is not willing to make the effort, I'll happily spend my money elsewhere.
kriskd wrote:
They have actually advised her to limit the content on her page so a top to bottom scroll bar isn't produced saying too much content will confuse the viewer causing them to go elsewhere.
I need to say this in all caps: FIND A NEW WEB DESIGN FIRM!
If they think that too much content will confuse the viewer, it sounds like they do not have enough experience in designing web sites. If the content is good, the viewer won't get confused unless the layout is horrible!
As others have said, the emphasis needs to be on quality content and ease of navigation. There is no such thing as too much content, as long as it is quality content. But, it is important to not use more words than is necessary. Don't say in 10 words what could be said in 5. And, if you have 5 words, can you say it in three?
For good writing advice, I think we can go back to Edgar Allan Poe. I think it was he who said that every word used should be an important part of the story, and if it isn't, cut it out!
Perhaps web writers ought to take a course in poetry to help us all learn how to say things in fewer words.
I'm trying to convince my client to add more content so that he can rank higher in the search engines. Right now he only has a couple of sentences per page as product descriptions. I tell him all of the time that if he added another 3 sentences that he would get a lot more traffic.
Vertical Scrolling is common and NEVER bothers anyone.
Infact, it is even MORE annoying to take a 1,500 article and break it up into 5 pages since it is a BITCH to print each page invvidually.
Kris,
I didn’t catch what type of audience you sister was aiming for. Is it a hobby site that people will leisurely browse at home? Or, in contrast, a business consulting site targeting time starved biz executives in their office who have to hunt out a single piece of info between meetings and calls?
As Roger stated, navigation pages should be succinct. For biz users who are hunting a specific chunk of info, almost ALL pages are navigation pages.
In watching business users navigate a site (both in formal research and informal watching) I've realised that they generally have the attention span of Cats suffering from ADD. As “Please” alluded to, at best they scan headings for keyphrases that interest them and then find the link to further drill into that point. (The “Big Button” theory). At worst they don’t feel they are making progress and close the session to try instead the lists of other sites that might have the info that they want.
So, while I realise that you have to be careful what type of site is it?
OK, and before I sign off, I realise that I didn’t follow my own advice here and have created a long and not precisely succinct post. Apologies, but time presses and I at least wanted to add my 2 cents here – even if it puts me on the receiving end of a lot of flame mail. :-)
Cheers,
Colin
p.s. Brett posted something a few years ago about hierarchy and money pages. This works for optimising for SEs and it also works for routing info-hungry, time-poor folks to the right spot for info purposes.
1) Sentences should be short and clear and to the point.
2) Paragraphs should be short and clear and to the point.
3) Verbosity is to be avoided.
Don't write: "You shouldn't get the impression that what I'm talking about are hard and fast rules. There are always exceptions to these rules."
Do write "Don't think the rules I'm outlining are without exception".
4) Repetition is to be avoided. As is the passive voice.
Don't write: "In some cultures Monday is considered to be the first day of the week whereas in others Sunday is considered to be the first day of the week."
Do write: "Some cultures consider Monday the first day of the week, others Sunday."
5) Sentences and paragraphs should not start with a statement and then go back to the context. Each should progress logically: A, B, C...
Don't write: "Some nervousness and / or anxiety is natural and to be expected when you are preparing for an interview."
Do write: "Before an interview expect to be nervous".
6) Lists separated by commas usually look better as unnumbered lists.
ie. "Several things you might want to do before the interview include doing some background reading on the company, re-reading your CV and application letter, ensuring that you know the exact location of your interview and how to get there on time and also preparing some questions for the interviewer in advance."
Might be better written as:
Several things you might want to do before the interview include:
7. Groups of paragraphs should be clearly delineated using subheadings. Optionally all subheadings can be referenced by internal links at the top of the page / article.
8. Sidebars and extra details (definitions etc.) can be referenced using external links.
Once the writing is clear, succinct and navigable. It shouldn't matter whether the page is two screen-heights or twenty.
And for the record, on the point about screen resolutions, I use 640x480 all the way up to 1400x1050.
I seem to be alone in this statement, but I generally don’t like 1,500 word articles.
When I'm reading a site, I don't typically pay attention to the word length.
If I read a particular article, it's because I have some interest in that article.
The question is whether the author keeps you wanting to read more.
There are times when I've read a rather lengthy article, where the length was never an issue and I never noticed it. Sometimes, I'm even left wanting for more.
Other times, I start getting bored, because the article just seems to go on and on and on and on and on... Will it never end!?
I think the advice is sound that you should not use 1500 words when you could say the same thing in 500. But, don't try squeezing into 500 words what really needs to be explained in 1500 words.
I am working as a web editor. I have a LOT of extra long article from magazine (which is about 3,000-4,000 words) to publish them on the website.
I do concern about the lenght of the article because I afraid my user may leave the site (although, the article is quite interesting). I thought I should split the page into 300-400 words per one page.
BTW, I assume that most of my user prefer to read the article in 1 page. I assume that they prefer to scroll down rather than click "next" again and again in order to read through 4,000 word essay.
What do you think?
For a lengthy article I personally prefer a title and enough content to get my initial interest. Once that's been done I'll follow a link anywhere, and scroll the length of any page. Maybe you can make bookmarking the page for future reading an option.
Once I actually found one of my pages listed in a "worst webpages" article! Why? Because the article on the page being criticized was very long. But I had made sure the page loaded quickly -- in fact, it loaded MUCH quicker than the site that was criticizing me! So I took that with a grain of salt.
Web design snobs have all kinds of ideas about how things should look, none of which have anything to do with the needs of visitors using your site. Anyone on your site who is confused about how to scroll down is a newbie who will figure it out pretty fast as he gets used to the Internet. Most visitors will be very accustomed to using the web, scrolling etc. and all they care about is whether your site contains the content they want. So I wouldn't skimp on content, no matter what "experts" tell you.
Finally, I would offer a printer-friendly version.
My $.02 on what I appreciate when reading long articles.
The web article paradigm seems importantly different from the newspaper/magazine/book paradigm in this respect - I think because it is relatively difficult to flip the online 'page' back to re-read the beginning of a sentence. My feeling (un-backed up by any relevant statistics I'm afraid) is that if a page ends in the middle of a paragraph/topic/section and confronts the user with a 'next page' link, a significant number of users will decide it is not worth it and go to a more usable site...
-B
1. Too much information (especially text) is not the important factor for user leave my website because they don't want to click the "next page" link.
2. 3-4000 word essay is ok. Just simply put them into one page and offer the user "Go to the Top" link.
3. Create indent, bullet, picture and make the text shorter as possible.
4. The value of content is the most important thing but usabilities is quite important as well.
Any comment?
As long as your presentation isn't driving people nuts (multiple pop-up ads, blaring music etc.) they will overlook almost anything; all they want is the content.
