Improve Formatting
Most people skim-read! Improve Formatting helps readers by converting walls-of-text into lists, headings, and highlights. This lets readers quickly find what they need by skimming and scanning the content. Improve Formatting implements guidance from Nielsen Norman Group's How People Read Online .
What does Improve Formatting do?
In today's competitive market, businesses face numerous challenges. The increasing demand for innovation, shifting consumer proferences, and ever-evolving technological landscape pose significant hurdles. To succeed, businesses must adapt quickly, optimize operations, and foster customer loyalty.
In today's competitive market, businesses face numerous challenges, such as:
- Increasing demand for innovation
- shifting consumer proferences
- Ever-evolving technological landscape
To succeed, businesses must adapt quickly, optimize operations, and foster customer loyalty.
Why does it do this?
Nielsen-Norman Group 's How People Read Online is the result of 25 years of UX research. For a summary, Jakob Nielsen 's foundational 1997 article is still fresh:
In research on how people read websites we found that 79 percent of our test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word.As a result, Web pages have to employ scannable text, using- highlighted keywords [...]- meaningful sub-headings (not "clever" ones)- bulleted lists- one idea per paragraph [...]- the inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion- half the word count (or less) than conventional writing[...] We developed five different versions of the same website. [...] Measured usability was dramatically higher for the concise version (58% better) and for the scannable version (47% better). And when we combined three ideas for improved writing style into a single site, the result was truly stellar: 124% better usability.
We recommend all Knowledge Managers at least scan NN Group's free Web UX Study Guide . (Which itself is a superb example of optimizing for scanning!)
But most writers still assume their readers will sequentially read their document, and they optimize for that experience. It is hard to train writers in your company to write differently.
That's why we at Slite have done the hard work for you. We've taken modern Web UX advice, and wrapped it up as a feature of Slite's AI Assistant.
FAQ
Does the assistant tell me why it's suggesting a change?
Not yet, but we plan to implement this soon. This feature will teach your writers the value of optimizing for scanning. We believe your writers will then bring the principles to their writing in every other part of your business.
Does this implement everything from How People Read Online?
No. We will be gradually rolling out more parts of the Web UX Guide over the following months. It also does not implement all advice given on "optimizing for scanning".
Scanning can be improved by removing detail that won't be as frequently searched for. However, our Improve Formatting feature currently avoids removing detail from your content. Try using our Make Shorter feature for this.
Scanning can be improved by reordering content. NN Group recommend the "inverted pyramid" style . However, our Improve Formatting feature currently avoids large restructuring. Try using our "Summarize doc" block for this.
We're still experimenting with when to combine text improvements into single prompts, and when to split them out into configurable sub-features.
Should I use Improve Formatting everywhere?
Probably not. It's best for content that will be scanned, not read. Using the Diátaxis framework, Improve Formatting is most useful for "reference" documentation. This includes a lot of content in a typical company knowledge-base. However, you may find Improve Formatting less helpful for "tutorial" documentation. In future, we plan to detect the type of content for your doc, and recommend appropriate actions based on that.