Message launch text preferences survey
18th Mar 2008
Message are carrying out a survey which aims to answer some fundamental questions about usability on the web.
Many designers have their own ideas about what constitutes 'readable' text, but much of this wisdom seems to be based on tried-and-tested rules from the world of print. While researching articles on the subject they often seemed to restate concepts I first heard twenty years ago!
We want to put some hard facts into the subject, rather than rely on anecdotal evidence and received wisdom from the book publishing world.
That's why we've launched www.textprefs.com
We have created an easy-to-use web application which allows users to adjust an on-screen display until they find the text to be easiest to read. They can adjust the font, size, line height and column width - the major contributing factors in legibility.
Once they're happy with the display they can submit their text preferences to our database, where they will start to build up a large and detailed statistical picture.
Using the data
Our goal is to create a report enabling us to state, from a position of knowledge, some hard facts about what constitutes 'readable' text on the web.
It also means that Message will be in an excellent position to create web designs for our clients that are even easier for visitors to use. Accessibility and usability are key to our service, so having the facts at our fingertips will provide even more value for Message clients.
