Can everyone understand? Testing the understandability of texts using the Echonity platform

Do you need to publish a text, send out a newsletter or an informational e-mail? Do you want to know if your clients will properly understand what you are trying to communicate? It is easy to just put it up to a test and find out! Testing it using the Echonity platform will give you insights on what needs more clarity and specification and what needs no change.

With every information that comes out in a two sided communication, there is a possibility of misunderstanding or a different interpretation than intended. Whenever there is a new communication campaign or a need for informing clients through various channels emerges, you can try it out in an online community before it comes out.

During previous testings for our clients, the Echonity platform has been helpful with:

• identifying words or phrases that are not understandable for customers,
• defining recommendations to clarify the text,
• determining the best text layout,
• empathy develtesting visual outlook of written materials,
• planning an understandable communication campaign.

Terms and conditions are usually something that customers are hesitant to read because they tend to be long and written in a language that not many people understand. That is why we have tested their understandability in a long-term online community for one of our clients.

The aim of the moderated discussions, heatmaps and additional polls in the online community was to check whether selected passages of a new terms and conditions are sufficiently understandable for the customer. We follow respondents’ declared understandability but we also carry out testings using questions regarding the text with which we evaluate the clarity of texts.

We had a representative sample of respondents in the online community who were given eight tasks in total to complete. Each task consisted of a piece of text from the insurance terms and conditions and a follow up question that verified the understandability. It was up to the respondents to read the text that included supporting tables or illustrative examples, find the relevant information and write their answer. The respondents were also asked to give us feedback, on the content but also the visuals of the conditions. They could provide their feedback in written comments as well as using heatmaps.

With every text testing we also use the tool of polls to easily and quickly find out some general features of the text itself. The surveys also enable us to quantify the findings. The surveys serve respondents as a tool to rate the text´s understandability, likeability (of visuals), coherence with the brand or attractivity to incentivise purchase. With surveys in Echonity we also can compare different versions of the texts.

After collecting the answers we were able to identify the level of understandability of individual passages from the terms and conditions. At least two out of three respondents have understood all the texts and answered the follow-up questions correctly. When provided with illustrative examples the success rate was even higher. The more the text was shorter and written in bullet points, the more respondents were able to understand it. From the respondents’ feedback, we have laid out a set of recommendations for our client on how to make the terms and conditions more concise and clear.