Six Tips to Improve the Usability and Readability of your Website

Developing a readable website constitutes consequently in improved usability and an enjoyable reading experience for users. I believe we all want that for our site visitors.
1. Clean Layouts - Use Blanks
When I say "blanks", I am not referring to the color white, but the spaces between page elements (images, icons, text, etc..). A blank space to separate the sections. In this way you are reducing visual pollution and applying some of the simplest techniques for web usability. The term clean layout does not mean page with little content. You can have a lot of content in a clean layout. Just organize it! If everything is heaped with no clear separation between the elements, reading and navigating your site will become a very difficult task. Layout should have spaces between elements for the user to be able to "breathe" on your site.
2. Contents Charts
Who ever heard the phrase, "A picture is worth a thousand words" really a picture is worth a thousand words. Photos and images can improve readability when to replace large amounts of text. They can also be used to reinforce long blocks of text content. But make sure that your images are providing value to your page and not just decorating it. Avoid meaningless photos and images. In fact, users pay more attention to the text block that are near images. Following a very common example of image over a small block of text.
3. Alignment - Grid
Page content and design must be perfectly aligned, creating a clear visual hierarchy. For this purpose designers use an artifact called as Grid. This is a technique that will assist you tremendously in organizing your content. A well-planned grid can form an excellent basis for creating a website with visual balance. Pages should be divided into a system of columns, rows, menus, sidebars, header and footer, directing the user's eyes gently to content and navigation. Below is an excellent material on how to create grids.
4. Colors and Contrast
Clear text on a white background for you can even be something natural and common, but for visitors of your site it can be completely unreadable. You can definitely "play" with the contrast of its contents. If your site has a white background, you can call attention to certain texts, making them darker and make others not so dark texts so that they do not call much attention. For example, black text on white background draws more attention than a gray text on a white background. There is a great facility in reading when the text color and background color are in high contrast. Low contrast makes reading tedious for users, especially those who have some difficulty in vision. The site "Vischeck" simulates colorblind vision of your site. Just enter the address of the page to take the test.
The secret is to make sure there is good contrast between the elements of design, background colors and text.
Use colors to your advantage:

• Use color to highlight information;
• Use color highlights to capture the look of the user;
• Use the same colors for elements related to each other.

The design should not stand out more than the content. The goal of the design is to make the site more inviting.
5. Get to the Point
Omit needless words. A sentence on your page should not have unnecessary words and a paragraph should not have unnecessary phrases. Do not let words just taking up space on the page. Most pages on the Internet today can eliminate half the words without losing the value of the text, highlight it with the most useful content for your users. You can probably convey the same message of 50 words, how would you do with 100 words. Straight to the point and your users will thank you for it. Introductory texts such as Welcome screen doesn't pass any relevant information to users, so it should be avoided. 
The inverted pyramid writing style shows where to put the most relevant information on your page so that the reader finds it first.
6. Sources and Texts
There are hundreds of fonts available for download on the Internet, where the designer can choose something different for the headings and subheadings, especially now that more and more people are using the property @font-face CSS. However recommend keeping something simple for the rest of the content, such as Helvetica, Arial, Verdana or Times Roman. Use two font families, one for headings and subheadings and another for text. To highlight, use bold, italic and underline styles. Be careful to underline words and phrases, your users may find it a link. Large blocks of text intimidate readers. Below are some easy ways to better organize your text blocks.

• Use bulleted lists;
• Use headings and subheadings;
• Keep your paragraphs short and objectives;
• Highlight important points in the text (bold, for example);
• Avoid very large blocks of text. Prefer 10-15 words per line;
• Clarify the text that can be clicked;
• Spacing between lines and paragraphs.

These are some of the tips and techniques you can utilize in improving the usability and readability of your website.