Thanks to technology, most of the resources we obtain are in digital form. We view our textbooks, documents, and other resources as PDFs on our phones. While these files are easy to retrieve, we can’t deny that it is difficult to zoom in and out to read. But that’s not the only shortcoming of PDFs. According to Jakob Nielsen, co-founder of the user experience research and consulting firm Nielsen Norman Group, PDFs are still problematic, even after twenty years:
In the article, co-published this week with user experience specialist Anna Kaley, several reasons are given as to why PDFs are problematic when used for online reading. Some of the usability issues mentioned include a jarring user experience, slow load times, unnecessary content, unnavigable content masses, and the fact that PDFs are sized for paper and not screens.
“The format is intended and optimized for print. It’s inherently inaccessible, unpleasant to read, and cumbersome to navigate online. Neither time nor changes in user behavior have softened our evidence-based stance on this subject,” the article reads. “Even 20 years later, PDFs are still unfit for human consumption in the digital space.”
image via Vice