A Technique for Easier Reading on the Web
The web is great for skimming text but difficult for reading long pieces. That’s because there are so many parts of a web page that are in competition with the longer form article that you want to read:
- The navigation bars (necessary when navigating but not when reading)
- Advertisements (necessary revenue generators for site owners but visual annoyances)
- Links to other articles in the form of images or text boxes (helpful when looking where to go next but inapplicable when you’re planning on staying put)
These competing page elements take up space which shrinks the amount of room available for the article you’d like to read. They also introduce distracting visual clutter, making reading long form text on the web unpleasant.
Here’s how to cut out those distracting elements and focus completely on the article you want to read:
1) Click a button called “Readability” in your browser bookmark bar
2) Enable Full screen mode in Firefox or Chrome
Readability is a button that you add to your bookmark bar that automatically detects the text you want to read in a webpage and isolates it in a new window, removing all competing visual clutter.
To improve the experience, hide the browser frame by going to the “View” menu in Firefox or Chrome and selecting “Full Screen.”
What you’re left with is pure text and images associate only with that article you want to read.
See the image to see a sample “before” and “after.”
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molly