The Importance of Readability in Good Website Design

How many times have you visited a website only to come away with a raging headache? Maybe a little blurred vision? Or, perhaps both?

This happens all to often in the online world of the Internet. People spend countless hours in front of their monitors searching and reading, buying and reading, playing games and reading… considering this it stands to reason that when you are building your website, you will want to insure excellent readability for your customers.

This is an important aspect of good web design because if your website gives your patrons a headache, then they will likely never be back — it is also possible they will give a poor review of your website to friends and family who may in turn pass that along to their friends and family. That is a chain reaction you would do well to avoid.

Fortunately, you can. Using practices that are found online, or in books, regarding good web design, you can create a website that is both user friendly and appealing to your customers. Applying the concepts of readability to your website can actually help drive traffic to your web-pages given the fact that — all things being equal between your website and another — if a person can read yours more easily over your competitors, then you are going to be the beneficiary of the web traffic thanks to your good web design.

Now you may be wondering to yourself just what you can do to enhance the readability of your website. This is a valid thought, especially if this is one area you have not considered to be of high importance, or perhaps you just did not know something that seems so minor can actually have a huge impact on your website. At any rate, some of the aspects of good web design you can employ to increase the readability on your own website include incorporating such things as contrasting colors for your backgrounds and text, use bullet points and subheadings to break up your text for ease in reading, avoid backgrounds that are too noisy and use a simple, clean font.

These are all ways you can provide an excellent viewing experience for the people who come to your website.