{"id":17528,"date":"2018-05-11T00:13:01","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T04:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/?page_id=17528"},"modified":"2022-01-26T12:34:55","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T16:34:55","slug":"skimming-scanning-reading","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/writing-tips\/skimmability\/skimming-scanning-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Quotes on skimming, scanning, reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

What writers & others say<\/h2>\n

\"Skimming,

\n

“Content may be king on the web, but few people actually read web copy word by word.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Karen Brighton, senior manager of digital content, ServiceNow<\/h6>\n
\n
“On the Web, there is no such thing as leisurely browsing. We want to gather as much information as quickly as our eyes and fingers can move.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Nicholas Carr, author, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains<\/em><\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cPeople read paper. They use the web.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 TJ Larkin, Larkin Communications Consulting<\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cA screen-based reading behavior is emerging. [It\u2019s characterized by] browsing and scanning, keyword spotting, one-time reading [and] non-linear reading.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Ziming Liu, library science professor at San Jos\u00e9 State University and author of \u201cReading Behavior in the Digital Environment\u201d<\/h6>\n
\n
“Because most people aren\u2019t going to painstakingly go through and read your content word-by-word, you need to make it as easy as possible for people to quickly comprehend your content.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014\u00a0Colin Newcomer, freelance writer<\/h6>\n
\n
“It\u2019s the height of arrogance to assume that all of your customers are extraordinarily interested in everything you write \u2014 more likely, they\u2019ll read a few pages and scan the rest.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Jakob Nielsen, \u201cthe king of usability”<\/h6>\n
\n
“People spend less than a minute on content pages, even when they\u2019re looking at long articles or detailed product specs.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014\u00a0Jakob Nielsen, \u201cthe king of usability”<\/h6>\n
\n
“People don\u2019t read online. They scan.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014\u00a0Jakob Nielsen, \u201cthe king of usability”<\/h6>\n
\n
“As little as 16% of people\u00a0actually read content word-by-word.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014\u00a0Jakob Nielsen, \u201cthe king of usability”<\/h6>\n
\n
“How long will users stay on a web page before leaving? It\u2019s a perennial question, yet the answer has always been the same: Not very long.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014\u00a0Jakob Nielsen, \u201cthe king of usability”<\/h6>\n
\n
“In information-foraging terms, blocks of text are analogous to the hard shell of a tortoise. Many predators will let the sluggish critter go because it\u2019s simply not worth their time and effort to break open the shell to get at the meat. Similarly, web users often think that digging through dense type takes more time than it\u2019s worth.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Jakob Nielsen and Hoa Loranger,\u00a0co-authors of Prioritizing Web Usability<\/em><\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cDigital immersion has even affected the way [kids] absorb information. They don\u2019t necessarily read a page from left to right and from top to bottom. They might instead skip around, scanning for pertinent information of interest.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Don Tapscott, author of Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World<\/em><\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cNew forms of \u2018reading\u2019 are emerging as users \u2018power browse\u2019 horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Peter Williams and Ian Rowlands, University College London researchers and the authors of \u201cInformation Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future\u201d<\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cAccept that people scan web pages, rather than reading them in detail, and work with this reality rather than fighting it.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014\u00a0Pamela Wilson, author<\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cThe dirtiest four-letter word in the English language: \u2018read.\u2019\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics website<\/h6>\n
\n
\n\t\t\t