I’ve been trying to get beyond the first 20 pages of Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way for the past couple of months. On a good day I’ll get through 5 pages in the 40-minute morning commute and maybe 3 in the evening commute back home. On a bad day, poor Proust gets put aside for more bite-sized reading (today it was The Economist magazine) or another book entirely.
I have nothing against Proust. He’s a fantastic writer and I love his neuroticism. Most people who have the patience for his stream of consciousness, half-page-sentences writing style enjoy his books and detailed insights into insignificant things.
The problem is that I’ve unwittingly lost the patience to read. Last week I put aside Proust (for the 2435th time) for John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Steinbeck likes to describe as well, but not to the length and detail of Proust. East of Eden had me hooked for a week straight, but when the plot was getting slow I found myself scanning the page for the next big turn in events.
Having done a short web copywriting course earlier this year, it is becoming increasingly evident to me that people don’t read on the Internet — they scan. Maybe its that get-in-and-get-out attitude people have when browsing the ‘net. Or maybe it’s simply the back-lit glare of a screen. Whatever the reason is, eyetracking research has found that Internet users generally read the first sentence of each paragraph and move on.
The reason for this is people are scanning for the information they want; once they find a clue or indicator of what they want, users will slow down and read it. How many times have you tried to find a call to action — the submit button, link to a page on shipping rates — and discovered that you couldn’t find it? You probably also discovered that once you slowed down and methodically looked through every row and column of the site, it was sitting right in front of you. Although it’s also likely that you just didn’t bother and moved on.
What does this mean for web content writers and web designers?
- Don’t force your audience to look for something. If they can’t find it at first glance, they won’t bother.
- Split up long bodies of copy that each paragraph holds only one idea. Knowing that readers will scan, make sure that the idea is clear in the first sentence of that paragraph.
- Multiple but related items (such as in a list) are much better in bullet points than in one whole sentence.
- Bolding words also draws attention to scanning eyes.
And what does that mean for people trying to read Proust? Don’t read Proust like you’re reading on the Internet.
