We recently expanded our research to cover a big part of the population left out of earlier studies: lower-literacy users. As it turns out, their online behavior is radically different than that of higher-literacy users.
Lower literacy is different than illiteracy: people with lower literacy can read, but they have difficulties doing so.
They must read word for word and often spend considerable time trying to understand multi-syllabic words.
They “plow” the text, line by line. This gives them a narrow field of view and they therefore miss objects outside the main flow of the text they’re reading.
They don’t scan text. As a result, for example, they can’t quickly glance at a list of navigation options to select the one they want. Their only other choice is to completely skip over large amounts of information.
Lower-literacy users tend to satisfice – accept something as “good enough” — based on very little information because digging deeper requires too much reading, which is both challenging and time consuming. As soon as text becomes too dense, lower-literacy users start skipping, usually looking for the next link. In doing so, they often overlook important information.
In addition, having to scroll breaks lower-literacy users’ visual concentration because they can’t use scanning to find the place they left off.
Finally, search creates problems for lower-literacy users for two reasons. First, they often have difficulty spelling the query terms. Second, they have difficulty processing search results, which typically show weird, out-of-context snippets of text. As a result, lower-literacy users often simply pick the first hit on the list, even if it’s not the most appropriate for their needs.
Improving Usability for Lower-Literacy Users
The main and most obvious advice is to simplify the text.
Prioritize information. Place the main point at the very top of the page, where even readers who typically give up after a few lines will see it. Place any other important information above the fold, to minimize the risk of users losing their place after scrolling. This is always good practice; even the most skilled readers will leave a page if the first few paragraphs don’t seem valuable. It’s even better to avoid scrolling all together (which also helps teenagers) unless eliminating it requires you to chop content into unnaturally short sections, which can be even more confusing.
Avoid text that moves or changes, such as animations and fly-out menus. Static text is easier to read. This guideline also helps international users (who might need to look up words in a dictionary) and users with motor skills impairments (who have difficulty catching things that move).
Streamline the page design. Place important content in a single main column, so users don’t have to scan the page and pick out design elements in a two-dimensional layout. This guideline also helps low-vision users and users of handheld devices (such as smartphones), which narrow the field of view.
Simplify navigation by placing the main choices in a linear menu. This helps users clearly understand the next place to go, without requiring them to scan the page for options.
Optimize search. Make your search tolerant of misspellings (which also helps seniors, who are particularly prone to making typos). Ideally, a user’s first search hit should answer the query, and all hits should provide short, easy-to-read summaries.
