Scan-ability

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Scanability demonstrated in an eyetrack study, found in Jakob Nielsen's article about Banner Blindness

Scan-ability refers to the capacity text has to be scanned by readers. Writers of digital media must pay special attention to scan-ability because readers of digital writing are known to be easily distracted, impatient, and unwilling to read huge blocks of text. Scan-ability is crucial for digital writing because, without maintaining a good level of it, readers will not pay attention to your work.

Three-second rule

In Writing for Digital Media, Brian Carroll explains Dale Dougherty's Three-second Rule. The Three-second Rule "holds that a site has approimately three seconds to download properly, present itself and engage the viewer . . . or else." This rule exists because of the tendency online readers have to scan digital text.

Layering content

To make your blog scannable, layering content is a necessity. Brian Carroll says Layering content involves working with text, the visual qualities of text, multimedia, and linking.

How to layer the elements of your blog

Text

Brief summary paragraphs

Digital writing needs to be concise to ensure that readers will read the entirety of the text. In addition to making sure you write with the inverted pyramid in mind, you should also stick to one idea per paragraph. Typically, users will move on from a paragraph if they are not impressed by the first few words. Using one idea per paragraph keeps your writing focused and maintains brevity.