{"id":3431,"date":"2016-04-18T07:00:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T12:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/?p=3431"},"modified":"2019-11-11T10:42:54","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T16:42:54","slug":"ux-word-of-the-day-chunking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/ux-word-of-the-day-chunking\/","title":{"rendered":"UX Word of the Day: Chunking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Whenever you go to a baseball stadium or other sports arena, do you ever complain because the seats are broken up into sections?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sections make it easier and faster to find your seats. Imagine having to carry your hot dog and beer past 400 people who are already sitting in their seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Excuse me. Pardon me. Excuse me. Oops, sorry about that! Times 100.<\/p>\n

How exhausting. Luckily, there’s a better way.<\/p>\n

Content Chunking<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Breaking up text into small chunks to improve readability and decrease reader fatigue.<\/h4>\n

Here are my best tricks for chunking content:<\/p>\n

Headings<\/strong><\/h3>\n

First, write them. I believe good web content should be\u00a0broken up by a heading every 2-3 or so paragraphs. It’s hard to read 16 paragraphs in a row. Headings help give our eyes a break.<\/p>\n

I also believe headings should be packed with useful information. Think of a heading like a summary or thesis for the following paragraphs. Or in the case of this blog post, I’m using headings like bullet points.<\/p>\n

Cool trick:<\/em> headings make it possible to more easily skim an article. I’d much rather someone read just my headings than nothing at all.<\/p>\n

Bullet Points<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Whenever you\u2019re presenting 2 or more ideas, put them in a bullet point list rather than a sentence.<\/p>\n

Paragraph Length<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Keep paragraphs short. Like 1-3 sentences short. Especially on mobile devices, too many sentences in a row causes reader\u00a0fatigue (eye strain).<\/p>\n

Icons + Graphics<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I love it when websites separate blocks\u00a0of content with graphics.<\/p>\n