The basics of readability

If you are exposed to the world of content at all, you will hear about readability. Content strategists or designers (or whatever title your organisation has come up with) work with readability levels to ensure that our content is appropriate for its target audience.

Simple is good

Time and time again, clients will push back on simplifying content. The biggest fear that comes our way is lack of authority in simple language. This misses the point entirely — what users trust is information they can understand.

Making your content easy to read is good for all users. Data shows the around 15% of people in the UK have “functional illiteracy”. But the numbers of those who have low literacy is likely much higher. Many elements can impact reading ability. Learning or cognitive processing difficulties, and use of screen readers make a strong case to simplify.

But those reading on our phones, distracted by office noise, trying to get information in a rush or in emotional distress could all benefit. When you simplify language, you’re making life easier for your users with high literacy levels and opening out the pool of potential users. If people can understand what you’re saying and have confidence in it, they’re more likely to see you as authoritative. Everybody wins.

Grade levels for readability

Recommendations for readability tend to be based on grade levels. The Neilsen-Norman Group recommends the following reading levels for websites:

• Homepage & top level pages — Grade 6 (Age 11–12)
• Majority of site — Grade 8 (Age 13–14)
• Supporting & accompanying content — Grade 14+ (Age 18+)

These are broad recommendations. It is important to assess different content types and audiences across the site and adjust expectations accordingly.

If your site requires certain complex words as part of its basic functions, these targets might be hard to hit. For example, a website on renewable energy will probably need to use words like sustainability or environment which can push up the grade level.

See what your starting point is and aim for improvement from there. If you’re consistently coming out at a Grade 14 or above, a Grade 6 is a high as. Maybe start out by trying to simply down to a Grade 10 or 11.

How can we improve

There are some basic tips that can help you in getting started.

Chunking content

The way you choose to lay out text is important. The best place to start is chunking content, and breaking up any walls of text. This means breaking up content into shorter, bite-size pieces. If you have a wall of text, it’s near impossible to get through.

Have you ever seen one of those old newspapers that feel entirely overwhelming?

Don’t be that person.

Bullet lists

Bulleted or numbered lists can be useful. They create an area of interest, highlight key information, and group ideas. We don’t want to overuse them and make them redundant but it can be a nice way to break out information.

Use headings

I’m a big fan of a heading and subheading. Use them to introduce a new topic or even a new paragraph. They’re a great visual marker of what’s happening on your page.

Tools

Many tools help to flag long sentences, complex words, passive voice and more. The ones I use are:

• HemingwayApp which is a free online tool
• readable.io which has both a free option and paid Pro option

Hopefully that gives you a good starting place to think about readability, and applying some of its concepts to your digital projects.