We've all gone through it - the dreaded tired eye. You've been on the computer, looking up information and working and searching and typing. Your eyes start to feel heavy. They start to itch. You just have to leave your computer!
This is the result of reading and staring at a "giant flat light." Because that’s basically what your computer monitor is – a giant flat light. But do you know why your eyes feel this way? There are a number of reasons.
The grainy screen
Sometimes you look at a screen and nothing is clear. You may be used to looking at it that way and don't even realize it.
A good screen resolution is 100 dpi (dots per inch). What does that mean? Well, if your monitor isn't small, your resolution shouldn't be 800 x 600.
The evil flicker
If you own a tube monitor, then you are most likely experiencing the flicker. You can't notice it when looking at the screen, but if you look away and view the monitor in your periphery, you can actually see it. This flicker makes your eyes extremely tired. It has the same effect when you are in a fluorescent-lit room all day. (They flicker too.) LCD screens, which are flat, are a little better but are still more difficult to read than a paper.
Staring into a screen is bad for your eyes.
It's just a fact. When you were young, you were told not to sit too close to the TV or you'd go blind. Computer monitors aren't TV’s, but staring at them at the same distance for long periods is not good. It leaves your eyes weak and dry.
So how do you deal with this?
You deal with this in the same way you deal with any other new environment – you adapt. How do you adapt? You scan. That’s right. Instead of staring or reading, you reduce the time you spend at the screen by scanning through the pages.
Scanning affects the way sites are designed. Designs need to give the user a quick, simple, effective but less tiring way to view the sites.
