How People Read

Many web usability specialists would assert that readers aren’t reading on the web—they are scanning the information. Usability Specialist and author JakobNielsen claims:

"People rarely read Web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences. In a recent study John Morkes and I found that 79 percent of our test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word." (Nielsen '97)

The Web is a non-linear environment, so reading on the web is done in a non-linear fashion. In a non-linear environment, users are presented with many choices and then must decide which they want to view first. This non-linearity allows readers to find and read information in which they are most interested in and then follow their unique interests (Farkas and Farkas, 2000, p. 241).

How people remember

Besides knowing how people read on the Web, it’s a good idea to think about how humans retain and retrieve information. This is especially important if the information presented on a website is important to remember. In a groundbreaking article published in 1956, psychologist George A. Miller reported in The Psychology Review that humans can remember information more effectively if it is divided into "bits" and "chunks." (Miller, 1956)

Bits are small pieces of information—i.e. single words. Chunks are groups of bits—i.e. phrases, clauses, sentences or groups of sentences. According to Miller’s theory, if the writer or designer compiles the information into bits and chunks, the reader has a better chance of retaining the information. (Chunks and bits are labeled under the "Welcome to TC" headline on this page.)