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Whether you are a human being or a search engine, you need great text to define the point of a website and attract users to it. Text size, alignment, and spacing is important, but the content that makes up that text is key.
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[Dan Gorgone] Whether you're a human being or a search engine,
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quite often the most important reason to visit a website comes down to what's in the text.
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Written content still provides the context on why to visit websites,
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so you must ensure you provide great content—readable content—
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and enough of it to satisfy your users.
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Out of all the different things that make up a website,
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the one aspect that should be the most connected
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to the whole purpose of building the site in the first place should be the text.
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Think about it—you need to describe who you are,
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what you do, what you've got to offer, and how users can get it.
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Quite often, people will build a site and design the structure of pages first
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before understand what kind of text will be listed on the page.
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On the contrary, it's important to consider the content first
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on many page designs before creating one pixel of it.
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Assembling the important text first,
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along with related content in a logical,
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readable, and accessible way will allow you to design something
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that supports the consumption of that content.
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[Guil Hernandez, CSS Teacher Treehouse] Typography is incredibly important
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in usability because I think—and we should all think—of typography as part of the UI.
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A lot of the times when readers visit your website,
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they don't want to read your content, they're looking for excuses to leave the site and not read everything.
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So, we need to provide proper line heights, white space,
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and structure the text so that it's in a readable and legible way.
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Otherwise, it's just another reason for them to abandon your website.
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[Gorgone] The size of website text affects usability, as well,
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especially when users have trouble reading.
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Text size, spacing, and alignment must be considered.
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Text that's too small, for example, can be tough for users to read,
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especially if your users are older or have vision problems,
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or if they're visiting on a mobile device with a smaller screen.
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Colors must also be considered so your text remains readable on different backgrounds.
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Color blindness can affect a certain subset of users.
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So, designers often avoid combinations of red and green together whenever possible.
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In the end, what the text says is the most important thing.
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Writing for the Web means understanding how much text is needed,
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how text will be consumed by people and by search engines,
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and the different kinds of text required to meet different needs.
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[Hernandez] So, a pet peeve of mine when I visit a site with bad usability
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is, for example, when I get an error message and it doesn't provide me with the solution—
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it simply gives me the option to close or continue with that error,
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and then I have to go seek out a solution.
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Well, good usability provides a path to that soluton
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instead of making you seek one for yourself.
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[Gorgone] The text you need to fully describe a product
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will be different than the text needed to provide directions to complete a contact form.
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Well, not only should the length of the text be different in each case,
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but very often, you're going to have someone different writing each piece.
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You need to ensure that the tone and voice of your content is consistent across the board,
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so when a user visits the different parts of your site,
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the experience remains intact.
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For example, if your About page is deadly serious, it's all business,
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but your Hiring page is light and funny and includes lots of jokes,
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the message about who your company is might be lost here.
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When it comes to forms, consider how you can create ones that include text
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within the design to make a part of the interface.
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Many contact forms now include fields populated with helpful text
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to make the forms more compact and to provide examples
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so users understand how to enter the data you want.
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When describing products and services, you need to keep that user-centered approach in mind.
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Don't think about what you can say to simply sell that product or make the conversion.
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Consider who might need what you have to offer
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and what they need it for, and why they should consider you over someone else.
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Very often, you're going to need more than text to influence people,
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so adding images and videos can be helpful,
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but at the core, smart and efficient use of text will be
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what allows users to find your through menus, search engines, and the links that you provide on social media.
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