Cognitively speaking, reading is a lot of work. First, readers have to “decode” the text by assigning meaning to the words. Then they have to string the words together to understand what the author is trying to communicate in a particular sentence or paragraph. Reading on a screen is even more work — studies show that people’s comprehension and attention span are lower when reading on a screen, compared to reading on paper.13, 21
For people with limited literacy skills, this can get even more difficult. This audience may struggle to decode challenging words and remember their meanings, due in part to issues with short-term or working memory.22 If a page has a lot of content, they may not be able to remember it all. Further, what they do remember may not be the most important information.
Eye tracking measures where the eye is focused, or the motion of the eye as a person looks at a page. Eye tracking data shows what areas of a page are grabbing people’s attention and what areas they’re ignoring. This data can help us understand how people read and search for information online.23
According to eye tracking research, people with limited literacy skills generally read more slowly, and they may reread words, sections, or elements on a website (like buttons or menus) to understand them.24 They may also:
Figure 1.1: This eye tracking study shows the gaze path of a user who doesn’t have limited literacy skills as they skimmed a smokefree.gov webpage. Results show that the user is able to read the text linearly, from left to right, with minimal jumping around or going back and forth.24
Figure 1.2: This example shows the gaze path of a user who has limited literacy skills, looking at a similar page. Results show that the user is reading and re-reading every word, jumping back and forth frequently.24
Figure 1.3: This image shows eye tracking results for a user with limited literacy skills. The user is reading only the bulleted lists that look easy to read, skipping over dense paragraphs of text.24
These insights reinforce the importance of creating simple content that won’t overwhelm readers with too many words. Dense “walls of words” can trigger readers to skip content altogether.
Completing online forms may be especially challenging for users with limited literacy skills. This process involves reading the instructions and the form field labels, and then either spelling the answers to questions or reading and selecting from multiple-choice answers. (See Section 4.8 for information on creating user-friendly forms.)
