10 tips for website design using text

The thought of designing a website using only text is a daunting task. Pages and pages of text is not exciting, and is unlikely to keep any visitor for long and will leave with a headache never to return again. Below is out top 10 tips that will help get the most of the information, ensuring the website design looks good and is more likely to keep those visitors coming back.

1. Break that mass of words into smaller, more manageable chunks. Mass of text is hard to read on a monitor. Where possible text should be broken down into bullet points to create bite sized information that the reader can digest.

2.    Break the text up into categories. You can then use a menu in your web design to access the different topics. Users are then able to access specific information, and are more likely to return.

3.    Work out what information is a priority, and number them downwards. Priority number 1 should be the main heading, number 2 would be the sub heading and 3 onwards would be the body text. The lower the number, the more space and size that should be used in your website design. This will ensure that more emphasis is given to the more important text.

4.    Restrict the width of any block of text. One of the most common mistakes in the design of a website is to allow the text to flow to the browser width. This is much too wide for a comfortable read on even a small monitor. The recommended amount of words per line on your website design is between 7 and 10 words.

5.    Avoid the user needing to scroll through your  coporate or ecommerce website - To scroll a web page vertically makes it more difficult to break the natural top to bottom flow of reading as apposed to a newspaper or magazine. The physical act of scrolling takes considerably more effort than eye or head movement. Break the information down, and use separate pages to display the information.

6.    Colour online is free, so use it on your designing your website - Instead of using bold or italic, try using colour to emphasis important areas.

7.    Use white space where areas of text need stand out. More can be found on the use of white space here.

8.    Use a design grid system to organise the text. More information on design grids can be found here.

9.    Avoid using italics in your website design - Although italics work well on a printed page, they pixelate horribly on a computer screen. They clash with the natural square pixel grid and are best avoided, especially at smaller sizes.

10.    Avoid underlining text - Underlining indicates a hypertext link, so it is really not a good idea to use underlining for any other purpose, or it may confuse the reader.

At Advansys our skilled team can make the most of your information, and ensure visitors will come back again and again. Check out our web design portfolio.