Write Your Web Content for Lower Literacy Users

On October 22, 2005 / copywriting, page content / Leave a Comment

Jacob Nielson, the famous usability expert, recently did an experiment that shows web content designed for lower literacy users helps higher literacy users, too. Apparently 30% of web users are “low-literacy” users; these are people who can read, but who have difficulty doing so. This is not a function of intelligence; many people with dyslexia are highly intelligent.
Nielsen says “The most notable difference between lower- and higher-literacy users is that lower-literacy users can’t understand a text by glancing at it. They must read word for word and often spend considerable time trying to understand multi-syllabic words.”
His article covers the characteristics of  low-literacy users, how to improve usability for low literacy users, how large the low-literacy population is, and who should care about low-literacy users.
I found fascinating his study that shows improving usability for low-literacy users significantly helps higher-literacy users as well, at the 5% level of significance.
I recommend his article.