QA finding
A passage of the main content is hard to read
QA Warning Severity: Low
Part of the audit Readability. Finding id: qa.hardToReadPassages.
What it costs you
Readers skim. A long sentence or an insider word makes them skip the passage or misread it, and people reading in a second language drop out first.
What to do
Rewrite the passages in the evidence: one idea per sentence, the everyday word where there is one.
What it checks
- Text too hard to read
- Sentences too long
- Jargon from your own list
How to fix it
Rewrite the passage
- Find the passage on the page with the selector in the evidence.
- Split long sentences at 'and', 'which' and 'because'.
- Replace words from your avoid list with the plain word.
- Keep terms your readers need, and explain them the first time.
How to check: Recheck the page: the passage is no longer listed.
A real case
Researchers at Nielsen Norman Group rewrote a test website in 1997: the concise version scored 58% higher in measured usability, and a version that was concise, scannable and objective scored 124% higher.
Thresholds
| Name | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
max_reading_grade | 10 | Highest reading_grade a passage may have. The collector computes it with a formula made for the passage's language; set the limit on that scale. |
min_words | 40 | Passages shorter than this are not judged on reading grade; the formulas are unreliable on short text. |
long_sentence_pattern | (?:[^\s.!?]+\s+){30}[^\s.!?]+ | Matches a run of more than 30 words with no full stop, question mark or exclamation mark. Change 30 to move the limit. |
jargon_pattern | (?i)\b(utilise|leverage|synergy|going forward|best-in-class)\b | Your own list of words to avoid, as one pattern. The default is an English example list; supply the words of your own language and trade. |