Page Design Basics
Formatting is one way to help readers process information. The sections below outline two important design concepts. We'll explain the technical aspects of each concept in later pages.
White Space
The block of text in our example is dense enough to make even a dedicated student sigh! Design experts argue that white space--all of the area that is not covered in text or images, including the spaces between lines of text--helps readers navigate and process the information. There are three design elements, in particular, in this block of text that violate guidelines for using white space.The Wrong Way
- The paragraph is too long.
- The text is "justified" on both the left and right margins.
- The space between the lines is too small.
By default, the text editor in Canvas will prevent you from making two of these mistakes: justification and line spacing.
In Canvas, the default text justification is left-justified--the left margin is a nice tidy line straight down, and all new lines of text snap to the left margin. This is perfect for most content, as US readers are trained to read left to right, so our eyes naturally gravitate to the left margin. The ragged right margin, though it does not look as tidy as the crisp margins you may see in a newspaper, actually helps the reader keep their place--the bumps and bulges serve as visual markers that differentiate one line of text from another.
In addition, the default setting for the space between lines in paragraph text in Canvas is optimized for reading, leaving plenty of white space between lines so the text is not crowded, further enhancing readability.
The Effective Way
- Keep paragraph short and concise. (Don't worry about always following Miss Miller's advice from 3rd grade that a paragraph must have at least three sentences. Not true on the web!)
- Left-justify most text.
- Use the default spacing in Canvas to ensure text spacing is at least 1.5.
Since Canvas takes care of some white space design by default, the element you most need to address is the length of the paragraph.
Chunking
Cognitive scientists study how we process information. They have found that our short-term memory doesn't hold much information. Asking the reader to keep so much information in their short-term memory while they process the whole paragraph might actually decrease the student's comprehension!
Chunking allows you to break the information up into more digestible pieces, which aids in comprehension, helps students skim the page more quickly and efficiently, and helps students who may be overwhelmed by large blocks of text. Moreover, chunking into smaller, shorter paragraphs creates more white space, and this space literally gives readers a break--a visual cue to stop and process, and a visual pause when skimming a page.
There's one other value to chunking that really benefits learners. As experts, we understand what "goes together." Grouping material into sets and subsets of information--chunking both visually and conceptually--helps students develop schemas for new information.
In later pages we will discuss the accessibility principles that can help visually chunk a page...Stay tuned!
Before you select "Next" please be sure you have reviewed all of the sections above.