Publishers of technology books, eBooks, and videos for creative people

Home > Articles > Design > Voices That Matter

Tips for Writing Content For Mobile Users

Jakob Nielsen and Raluca Budiu explain that while there are many other points to consider, the main usability guideline for mobile content is this: When you’re writing for mobile users, focus their attention on the essential content.



This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

102

Mobile Content Is Twice as Difficult

  • Cloze Test
  • Cloze Test Solution–Don’t Peek
  • Why Mobile Reading Is Challenging

108

If in Doubt, Leave It Out

  • Filler = Bad
  • Ditch the Blah-blah Text
  • Old Words Are Best
  • Bylines for Mobile Content?
  • Author Bios Dos and Don’ts

116

Defer Secondary Information to Secondary Screens

  • Example 1: Mobile Coupons
  • Example 2: Progressive Disclosure in Wikipedia
  • Deferring Information = Initial Info Read More

123

Mini-IA: Structuring the Information About a Concept

  • Linear Paging? Usually Bad
  • Alphabetical Sorting Must (Mostly) Die
  • Example: Usage-relevant Structure
  • Usage-driven Structure

We’ve run many user studies, watching people read information on mobile devices. Our research included mobile websites, apps, and email newsletters. Across all formats, there’s one indispensable element: focus.

Of course, there are many other points to consider, but this one issue is the main usability guideline for mobile content: When you’re writing for mobile users, focus their attention on the essential content.

As discussed in the next section, research has shown that it’s 108 percent harder to understand information when reading from a mobile screen. Content comprehension suffers when you’re looking through a peephole, because there’s little visible context. The less you can see, the more you have to remember, and human short-term memory is notoriously weak.

Mobile Content Is Twice as Difficult

Research by R.I. Singh and colleagues from the University of Alberta shows that it’s much harder to understand complicated information when you’re reading through a peephole.

Singh and colleagues ran a Cloze test on the privacy policies of ten popular websites: eBay, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Myspace, Orkut, Wikipedia, WindowsLive, Yahoo!, and YouTube.

We did a quick analysis of Facebook’s privacy policy, which features:

  • 5,789 words, or 35 times the number of words users read during an average page visit.
  • 13th-grade reading level, so only people with a year or more of university would find the text easy to read.
  • Nicely formatted for Web reading, including a good use of subheads, bulleted lists, and highlighted keywords in keeping with guidelines for writing for the Web. (That said, these guidelines also call for short text and an 8th-grade reading level when targeting a broad consumer audience, not just Harvard students.)

In any case, there’s no doubt that privacy policies count as complicated Web content.

In Singh’s study, 50 test participants completed Cloze tests while reading the privacy policies on either a desktop-sized screen or an iPhone-sized screen.

Here are the results:

  • Desktop screen. 39.18 percent comprehension score
  • Mobile screen. 18.93 percent comprehension score

Test scores must be 60 percent or higher for text to be considered easy to understand. Even while reading from a desktop screen, users achieved only two-thirds of the desired comprehension level, showing that privacy policies do tend to be overly complicated.

Why Mobile Reading Is Challenging

User comprehension scores on the Cloze test were 48 percent of the desktop level when using the iPhone-sized screen. That is, it’s roughly twice as hard to understand complicated content when reading on the smaller screen.

Why? In this case, people were reading only a single page of information, and they were shown that page as part of the study without having to find it. Thus navigation difficulties or other user interface issues cannot explain the increased difficulty. Also, users were tested in a lab, so there were no issues related to walking around with the phone or being disturbed by noises or other environmental events. (In the real world, such distractions and degradations of the user experience further reduce people’s ability to understand mobile phone content during true mobile use.)

The only reason mobile scored lower than desktop is the screen size, because that was the only difference in the study conditions.

A smaller screen reduces comprehension for two reasons:

  • Users can see less at any given time. Thus users must rely on their highly fallible memory when they are trying to understand anything that’s not fully explained within the viewable space. Less context = less understanding.
  • Users must move around the page more, scrolling to refer to other parts of the content instead of simply glancing at the text.

    Scrolling introduces three problems:

    • It takes more time, thus degrading memory.
    • It diverts attention from the problem at hand to the secondary task of locating the required part of the page.
    • It introduces the new problem of reacquiring the previous location on the page.

In Figure 4.1 you can see an article from the app How Stuff Works. The article spreads across multiple screens; to follow the details in the text, users must remember or refer back to a diagram shown on a different screen.

Figure 4.1

Figure 4.1. The How Stuff Works app on iPhone: (A) Diagram of the different camera parts and (B) the explanation of how the camera works refers to the parts in the diagram. Users must go back to the diagram to understand the explanation.

Because a small screen impairs comprehension, it’s important to make sure that it’s used optimally and not occupied with unnecessary or redundant information. For instance, Lonely Planet’s choice (Figure 4.2) to make the title of the article sticky reduces the effective screen space without adding extra value to the user. Whereas this typically is recommended for e-commerce apps (where the “Buy now” button needs to be visible at all times in case users make up their mind as they scan through the product information–see Figure 4.11 and Figure 4.12 later in this chapter), it doesn’t make sense for touring guide information. It makes even less sense when the title is as devoid of content as “Hello, Amsterdam” is. (See also Figure A.1 in the Appendix for an example of how we discovered this mobile design principle way back in 2000.)

Figure 4.2

Figure 4.2. Lonely Planet’s app for iPhone anchored the title of its article, thus reducing the effective screen space.

Because comprehension is more difficult on mobile, it’s imperative that mobile content be easy to read and scan. Roundabout, fluffy writing should be replaced with direct and concise content that is formatted for scannability.

Let’s look at some examples of good and bad writing and formatting. In Figure 4.3., Teavana is overly wordy and suffers from poor and buggy formatting: The Health Info paragraph has no punctuation and is preceded by the meaningless-to-the-user FTGOP-2(SPECIAL).

Figure 4.3

Figure 4.3. Teavana app for iPhone: Tea description page. Not only is the description in the first paragraph relatively hard to read due to the multiple clauses per sentence and the many adjectives, but the formatting is buggy.

In contrast, OSHA (Figure 4.4) deserves a prize for concise, scannable writing for mobile: Emergency information needs to be read fast and understood easily, and the bullet points and keywords help with that. However the illustrations are just decorative: It is unlikely that they can help users identify the corresponding condition.

Figure 4.4

Figure 4.4. OSHA Heat Safety Tool app for Android.

In general, bullet points make the information more scannable (Figure 4.5). In the Recalls.gov app (Figure 4.5A), the information is easy to read; the main points are bolded and attract the eye. (The use of the “previous” and “next” buttons at the top of the screen to navigate to a different article is less fortunate, because “next” and “previous” are low information-scent labels.) However too much space between bullet points can make the page look less structured, as in the HSN example (Figure 4.5B). Additionally, the table-without-borders format makes it hard for the user to know which description goes with each option. And the brand description under the first blue sentence is completely unnecessary on mobile: It does not focus on the product facts. Brand information is better delegated to a secondary page.

Figure 4.5

Figure 4.5. Bullets make the small page more scannable: (A) Recalls.gov app for Android and (B) HSN app for Android.

Peachpit Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from Peachpit and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about Peachpit products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites; develop new products and services; conduct educational research; and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email ask@peachpit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by Adobe Press. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.peachpit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020