Paragraphs or Lists? The Effects of Text Structure on Web Sites

This paper describes a study that we conducted to investigate the effects of the visual text structure on Web sites on the users´ browsing behavior and on their appreciation for the Web site. It has been known for a long time that the visual structure of a text has considerable effects on reading behavior, but surprisingly little research has been done to define guidelines for the structure of texts on Web sites. We compared two versions of a Web site, one version contained text structured using paragraphs, the other version contained mainly text structured as numbered lists. Over 300 participants browsed one version of the site, and answered a survey about the content of the Web site and about their appreciation for the site. The results show that participants who used a Web site with text structured as lists performed better than participants who used a Web site with text structured using paragraphs: they visited more Web pages and they appreciated the site better.