In this section, we give you some background information on why following the guidelines about making information visual is so important. Also, we offer advice to those of you who are being pressured to put paper documents on the Web without revising them. Not reading makes sense Most of the time, users are trying to find a specific piece of information or the answer to a specific question. They often want to grab just the information they need and get on towards a goal. Having to read a lot is an obstacle to completing the goal.
Some people think that skimming and scanning is unique to the Web.
But it's not. Workplace documents are different from novels. People use documents. Even with paper documents, people want to jump in to just the information that they need, grab that information, and jump back out of the document. That difference may be disappearing with high resolution monitors, although we do not yet have definitive research with a relevant task, such as reading and understanding.