Justified versus ragged right? (take III)

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Sean Brierley responded to <http://www.stc.org/confproceed/1996/PDFs/ 
PG230235.PDF>: <<I was surprised to see indenting the first line of a  
paragraph increases readability but adding spacing between paragraphs  
does not. I have, over the years, settled into block-left alignment  
of my work with no indent for the first line and with a double space  
between paragraphs, with lines within paragraphs single height.>>

This is precisely the problem with research: it tends to be either so  
specific that the results only apply to the test conditions, or so  
general that the results don't apply to any specific conditions. As a  
contrary finding, I designed a publication about 20 years ago in  
which we did a quick usability test with a dozen or so readers who  
broadly represented our audience: readers younger than 40  
overwhelmingly preferred initial paragraph indents with no spaces,  
whereas older readers overwhelmingly preferred no indents and spaces  
between paragraphs.

Don't treat this as an authoritative research result: we didn't  
control the research carefully, and we didn't test actual reading  
speeds or comprehension. I report this result only to provide  
evidence for my assertion that statistically significant research  
findings do not always translate into practically significant (i.e.,  
meaningful) differences. For instance:

<<Probably because I am used to this, I find this plus left-aligned  
easier to read>>

And this is broadly true in the research literature that I've read:  
experience and familiarity trump small differences in theoretical  
superiority every time. For example, I read sans serif text much more  
slowly than serif text, but this has nothing to do with the  
theoretical legibility advantage of serif over sans serif. It's  
purely the result of familiarity -- most of the authors I edit write  
in Times New Roman, so I spend many hours per day staring at that  
font. Most European readers are more familiar with sans serif type  
than most North Americans, and read that type every bit as fast as we  
read serif.

<<I am also struck by the fact that little recent research has been  
done on readability; indeed, some of the research goes back to the  
60s.>>

The paper cited above was written in 1996, so you can imagine the  
references are old <g>. There's been a ton of more recent research,  
including some studies in the journal _Technical Communication_ (for  
example, Jan Spyridakis' group at Univ. Washington? has done some  
interesting work), not to mention Colin Wheildon's book (latest  
edition, 2005). And I believe that Karen Schriver is working hard on  
the sequel to Dynamics in Document Design... reminds me to follow up  
with her on the status. <g> You have to be careful with books by  
graphic designers such as Robin Williams, because they often do  
nothing more than present the author's preferences or hobgoblins,  
unsupported by any research.

----------------------------------------------------
-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
--------------------------------------------------
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