Reader Defense

Original author: Mandy Brown
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The best readers are stubborn readers. They have almost unlimited perseverance, which makes them read regardless of what is happening around. I saw a girl absorbed in reading Don Quixote at a table in a noisy bar; I saw a typical New York reader walking down the street with a book in his hand; In recent days, I happened to see many people swallowing books from the screens of their iPhones (one of them admitted that he had read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy by scrolling the text with his finger). And millions of us read newspapers, magazines and blogs from the screens every day - and all this despite claims that no one else reads.

These readers have one ability: they can create a sense of loneliness for themselves when circumstances allow them to do so. Reading must necessarily take place in solitude - like death, reading carries you alone; Over the centuries, readers have learned to create this privacy, learned to be in solitude in places adapted for this least of all. An experienced reader may be forgotten with a good book even when something like a war happens around (and sometimes during a war): it is almost the same as growing orchids in the desert.

Despite the fact that you can find enough “fiction” on the Internet, readers remain a forgotten audience. Most of what we are talking about web design revolves around the idea of ​​moving around the page: users are thought of as those who search, view, scroll, scroll through. We measure the frequency of their clicks, but not the time they spent on our page. We worry about their movement and participation — about how they move from one page to another, with whom they talk, when they get there — but forget about those who seek peace. Reading thrives where there is space - that is, a little away from the buzz of the crowd, and for us web designers, there is still room to work hard to clear such a space.


From looking to reading


Watching and reading at the same time is almost impossible: these are different activities.
- Gerard Unger, While You're Reading

Imagine the first time you are holding a book in your hands. You look at the cover to understand what it is about, then maybe flip it over to read the text printed on the back cover. By opening the book, you can glance at the title page or quickly run through the eyes of the table of contents. Maybe you decide to look at the end of the book to check the number of pages, or just weigh the book in your hand and intercept it more conveniently. If the book has a dust cover, you can remove it so that it does not interfere at hand.

Most readers necessarily perform one or more of these actions: they are a kind of ritual before reading, part of the book culture. They also perform an important task, facilitating the transition from viewing to reading. They help the reader to feel an interest in the book and are an invitation to reading, equipping the scene before the action that follows them. There are similar actions on the Internet. When you get to a page with an article (for example, this one), you can look at the logo to understand where you are, or look at the site menu to find out for yourself what else you can find here. Surely you see aboutrub on the title of the article, or on the photograph or illustration that accompanies it. If there is an excerpt or a summary on the page, you can go over it as you would over the short description of the book on the back cover. You may even read the first paragraph to understand how close and interesting this article is to you. If during any of these steps you come to the conclusion that the article is not for you, you leave the page and go somewhere else. But if she interested you, you will probably start reading.

All this can last only a few seconds, but these seconds are the only preparation for the reader, the only way that allows you to move from looking at reading, from viewing the text to concentrating on it. It is during these few seconds that the reader decides to focus on the text and start reading - no less exciting action than browsing, from which came the name of your favorite program - the browser.

Many stubborn readers will be able to go into a reading state, regardless of whether it is convenient or not convenient for them to do this on your page; but as designers, we can help start reading for everyone else. Look at the design elements that accompany the page, and place at the very top those that are added to the page to attract visitors. A summary or excerpt, like illustrations, allows the reader to quickly determine what the article is about. A list of categories and links to information on a similar topic form the context for the article. The name of the author and his brief description help to feel the personality behind the text. All of these elements are connected to open the path to reading.

Surely the first paragraph (or the first few paragraphs, depending on the size of the text) will be read differently from the following. We often read more slowly at the beginning of the text, getting used to the author’s style and deciding whether or not to continue. Some typographic techniques, such as a letter or lettering for the first paragraph, a larger size or a different type of font, can give the first paragraph a different meaning compared to subsequent ones and make the transition to reading more convenient. Figuratively speaking, the first paragraph should sound louder than the following to attract the reader.

Now leave me alone


Once the reader has created an aura of solitude around him, he becomes almost unattainable. A reader who is very keen on his activity may not hear you if you call him by name. Call him again and he will raise his head, giving you an irritated look. The main thing is not to stop all the fuss that reigns around the reader, but give him enough space (remember the girl who read Quixote at the bar? You will probably try to order a drink without disturbing her).

In practice, this means that you need to remove everything that distracts, leaving only the most necessary. Excerpts and quotes, so useful at the beginning of the article, in the future become only a hindrance: many feel how they unconsciously attract attention, even when they want to concentrate on the text. Attention to the simplest details of typography - line length, easy to read font, correct balance between font size and line spacing, suitable contrast between text color and background - may be a decisive choice in favor of the reader, which reaches the end of the article, and not in favor of the reader who gets tired and gives up.

The free space to the right and left of the text is not so much a luxury as a necessity. Each pixel of free space around the text can help the reader focus on the text, instead of being distracted. The reader’s eyes should periodically reach the edge of the block with the text: the sidebar of the site, located too close to the text or painted in a lighter or darker color, will get in the way of the reader every time. Even a slightly increased indent between the text and the sidebar (especially if there is more text on the sidebar) can make the page more convenient and return the reader a sense of privacy.

It is important to consider how the reading process is built. After the initial transition from peering to reading, there follows a period of deep concentration during which the reader is literally forgotten with the text. At the end, however, the reader again emerges from the abyss of information and is ready to return to looking at it, which led him to this place. The page design should take into account these three distinct phases: first meet the reader, then leave him alone and at the end give him the opportunity to continue to search for what interests him.

Many sites scatter related content around an article, instead of collecting it at the top or bottom, which would be more useful and not so distracting from the article itself. If you want your visitors to view the page, by any means pull out the side panel to its entire height and fill it with whatever it takes, so that not a single pixel next to the article is empty. But if you want them to read - if the article was written, and not just composed or copied, if the text consists of carefully composed prose, and not from fragments of articles, lists, paragraphs and reminders, then respect reading as a process and remove unnecessary information somewhere else. The middle of the article should be as lonely as the reader, keen on his own business, and achieve this with a design that does not get in the way of any text,

Designers can also be readers.


Of course, there are readers who avoid meeting the screen — those who print long articles or — horror! - Buy printed books and magazines instead. We often attribute the reason for their attachment to those features over which we have no control: the fact that sitting at the desk is physically uncomfortable (compared to a book with which you can comfortably sit down anywhere), inaccessibility for the average user of the screen, which would be more convenient than paper, the habit of losing attention developed during web surfing, because of which the transition to reading seems impossible. But in reality there are other features that play a role, and we can achieve a lot if we take them under our control; ask yourself if your page design is adapted to the reading process or, conversely,

The only way for a designer to check whether a page is suitable for reading is to read it yourself. Turning to the meaning of design, this means that you need to look into the text itself and find enough time to actually read it. This is not an easy task, but reading on the web is also not easy - trying to do some reading on the web will help you understand the state of the reader among the banners, advertisements and the variegation of web pages. The Internet is still a noisy and crowded place, but it is also infinity, and for sure we can find enough space on the Internet to read, the space in which the text speaks, and the reader hears it without tension.

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Original article: "In defense of readers" by Mandy Brown
Translated with the permission of A List Apart Magazine and the author [s].


From the translator:
Hello, Habrahabr!
Thanks for reading this article.
This is the first translation that I decided to put on public display. I apologize for his liberties.
If you find in it a word or paragraph that cuts the eye or is not formatted as usual, please comment.
Thanks in advance.

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