Interesting article on the Online Journalism Review website, all about how to create stronger engagement between web content and consumers.

Eyetracking studies reveal the (perhaps not entirely unsurprising) news that people are not particularly inclined to engage with a site that has loads and loads of words on it. What does encourage people to scan more of the content, is short, sharp copy, broken up with subheads and the humble (yet extremely effective) bullet point.

Indeed, bulleted items, subheads and ‘tighter writing’ led to an upsurge in user comprehension by 12% (in the particular test quoted by the Online Journalism Review).

So, further proof (if it were needed) of the need for brevity, if audience engagement is the desired response. For, only brevity will:

• allow a reader to get through a story more quickly
• help them remember more of the content
•  ensure that they are more satisfied with the all round website / copy experience

At which point, we’d better end this post here, lest we run the risk of not engaging with the reader…