Low-Literacy Users on the Web

Reading on the Web

Most web users read as little as they canThey scan the page, picking out

important words and sentencesUsers scan for meaningful subheadings,

highlighted text, and bulleted lists.However, low-literacy users read

websites completely differently

Low-Literacy Users

Low-Literacy Users can read, but have difficulty doing so

According to the U.S. Department of Education's National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 43% of the U.S. population has low literacy.

Although they use the internet less than higher-literacy users, Jakob Nielson estimates that 30% of web users have low literacy

Low-Literacy Users

Low-literacy users can’t understand text by glancing at it. They must read word-for-word

Because they focus so much on the words, they miss objects outside of the flow of the text

Scrolling is also a problems because these users are unable to scan to re-find their place

TOO MUCH TEXT

Too much text will turn off any user, but a low-literacy user will start skipping text, looking for the next link. Because of this they will miss important information.

Navigation

Navigation becomes difficult because low-literacy users must read each option carefully, or else skip over it altogether

Imagine how you would feel upon entering this site for the first time

Navigation

Search

Searching is also difficult for low-literacy users for two reasons: They have difficulty spelling

the query terms They have difficulty

understanding search results, because they “typically show weird, out-of-context snippets of text”

These users typically choose the first hit on the list

What Can We Do?

Some sites are targeted at higher-literacy users Corporate sites Science and technology sites

However, many sites must target a larger audience and focus on low-literacy learners Government sites Health sites Mass-market commerce sites (Amazon.com)

Improving Usability

Simplify the textOn the homepage, use text aimed at a 6th

grade reading levelOn other pages, use 8th grade level text

Improving Usability

Prioritize information Place the most

important information at the top of the page

Place other important information above where the user needs to scroll to see it

Improving Usability

Streamline the page design Place important

content in a single main column

This guideline also helps low-vision users and users connecting through small devices such as their phones

Improving Usability

Simplify navigationPlace main choices in a linear menuDon’t make users scan the page to find their

options

Case Study

In one case study, Jakob Nielson found that making these changes to a pharmaceutical site: Improved the success rate of low-literacy users by

36% Improved the success rate of high-literacy learners

by 25% Decreased the total task time of low-literacy users

from 22.3 minutes to 14.3 minutes Decreased the total task time of high-literacy users

from 9.5 minutes to 5.1 minutes

CASE STUDY

Low-literacy users increased their performance by an amazing 135%

Higher-literacy users also saw increased performance and satisfaction with the site

Everyone benefits when a site improves its usability

“Usability isn't a small tweak at the margins — it doubles a website's ability to meet its goals” – Jakob Nielson

“Usability isn't a small tweak at the margins — it doubles a website's ability to meet its goals” – Jakob Nielson