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Home > Guidelines > 5. Reduce cognitive burdens. > 5g. Let users print or save the entire document. |
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5g. Let users print or save the entire document at once, to avoid reading any more onscreen.
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Diagram
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BackgroundFor printing or
saving, provide a
separate link to a
complete document. Few web users spend time reading long passages of text on-screen. Most users will save long documents to disk or print them rather than read extensive material online.—Lynch & Horton (1999). Since some users prefer to read hard copy, provide an easy way for users to print related sets of pages. If your site is divided into sections, you may want to give users controls so they can print these sections as well as individual pages. —IBM (1999) Long, linear-text documents really belong back on paper. Your web site is just an archive for them.—Kilian (1999) See bibliography: IBM (1999), Kilian (1999), Levine(1997), Lynch & Horton (1999). |
Other ways to make your text easier to understand: 5a. Reduce the number of clauses per sentence. 5b. Blow up nominalizations and noun trains. 5c. Watch out for ambiguous phrases a user might have to debate. 5d. Surface the agent and action, so users don't have to guess. |
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Reflecting on Thoughtlessness
What is written without effort is in general read
without pleasure. People think I can teach them style. What
stuff it is. Have something to say and say it as clearly as you can.
That is the only secret to style. |
Resources on
thoughtlessness Taking a Position on Thoughtlessness Heuristic Online Text (H. O. T.) Evaluation of Cognitive Burdens |
Don't make me think.
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