Use lists Lists are easy to skim, and work well with links.
Last modified: 10/6/98
Use lists for presenting groups of related information
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Short lines
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Easy to skim
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Organize related links well
Lists are short lines, and easy to skim. Since they break up nicely into chunks (one chunk per list item) they work well for organizing a related group of links. For many situations, they will work better than links scattered in a paragraph that must be read in context.
Keep the items short
To keep the list skimmable, try to keep the length of each item in the list short. One to five words is best, with two to four even better. Use direct words, avoiding fluff.
The title/summary combination makes a good list item
One format that works well on-screen is lists of short, bold headings a few words long followed by a sentence or two of summary in a lighter, perhaps smaller, font. From a skimming viewpoint, the list item is just the bold part, but more information is available when your eye stops on an item. The title part can be link. This is been used very successfully by many news sites.
For example:
Acme/Zenith lawsuit settled: Acme industries dropped its patent infringement suit against Zenith Associates and the two companies signed a mutual licensing pact.
Lists work better on screen than spoken
Lists may seem out of place in a written document, since people often write in a manner that feels like it is to be read out loud. Lists, however, are perfectly well suited to computer screens.
