The Relationship Between Readability and Text Design in Educational Websites1

Purpose: Purpose of this study is to investigate the readability levels of the websites that have educational contents. Design/Methodology/Approach: Web-site readability is generally examined through the structural properties of the texts, or their physical properties. This research performs readability measurements are performed by employing both of the above- mentioned methods. Findings: The findings illustrate that half of the websites are at the medium difficulty level, 20% of the remaining websites are easy, and 30% of them are difficult in terms of readability. It is concluded that readability and text design levels of the investigated websites are consistent with each other. Highlights: The most important features in terms of text design elements in educational websites are the tonal value of the text that makes it easier to read, the balanced use of the spaces between the letters, attention to the text integrity in the text, the listing levels not exceeding two levels, and the clickability of the links. It has been seen that the least considered features in terms of text design elements in educational websites are glossary and bibliography arrangement, not including scroll bars, explaining links with texts, distinguishing visited links, inverted pyramid technique, using in-page links. It has been seen that the texts on the educational websites are at a medium difficulty level according to the text design elements scale. According to the result obtained from the readability formula of the texts on the educational websites, it was seen that the readability levels were at the medium difficulty level.