Every website design guide will tell you that large blocks of text will be ignored. However, it’s not every day that this is so clearly illustrated.
On Wednesday, a website called ReadWriteWeb.com inadvertently proved that a certain segment of users will completely ignore all text except for the exact phrase they are looking for.
ReadWriteWeb published an article called Facebook Wants to Be Your One True Login. Google picked up that post and presented it a news result for the search “facebook login”, which meant that (at least for a few hours) it came up above the normal Google results for “facebook login”.
A few hours after it went live, ReadWriteWeb’s administrators noticed a lot of the article’s comments were from users who thought they were on Facebook’s website. Users complained that they didn’t like the new red color scheme (ReadWriteWeb’s logo color) or that they couldn’t find their inbox or their news feed.
ReadWriteWEb even added a large note to the article:
CONCLUSION
- Many users will ignore all text and images except for the exact phrase they’re looking for.
- Give users what they want, and give it to them in a clear and up-front way.
Blue Fountain Media can help you streamline your own website and make it more user-friendly. For help with your website, call 212-260-1978 or request a quote today.
