3 ms·

It is called a pull quote, and they have been a thing for longer than the internet (from experience). A quick search hasn't yet turned up anything interesting.

It is called a pull quote, and they have been a thing for longer than the internet (from experience). A quick search hasn't yet turned up anything interesting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pull_quote https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pull_quote

wallacoloo 10y ago
Hmmm. It makes sense for magazines, where people tend to flip the pages until something catches their eye. But in online content like this, it seems that once somebody's on your webpage and past the fold, a pull quote might not have a significant impact on whether they read the article or not. And for skimming/previewing, I suspect section headings are comparatively effective. Of course, I have no data to back that up. For me, they just create stress when I'm reading. I see one of these pull quotes coming and I think "I should just skip this - I know they'll repeat themselves further down, or that this quote will be a repeat of something said earlier, so I should save myself the time and skip it." But then when I try to do that, the thought becomes, "but what if this quote is unique and not just some text copy-pasted from elsewhere? I need to read it, otherwise I might not understand the rest of this section." And of course, I see these pull quotes edging up from the bottom of the screen a few sentences in advance, and so all this thought distracts me and I invariably have to reread the surrounding text because of that. Hopefully this is something particular to me and pull quotes don't cause others this kind of irrational stress. In any case, thanks for answering my question.
- cmrx64 10y ago
  I do the same thing with pull quotes in any medium, not just the internet. I don't like them.
  - DasIch 10y ago
    It makes sense when you don't read everything, when you're reading a newspaper or a magazine for example and only read the articles that catch your attention. I really don't see how it makes sense in the context of a single article though. If I'm already clearly reading an article, a pull quote is only going to distract me.
adrusi 10y ago
The reason that's pushed for it in the context of articles on the web is that it breaks up the wall of text, and supposedly people are less likely to stop reading in the middle of an article if there isn't a wall of text. It's a substitute for images for lazy authors.

wallacoloo 10y ago

Hmmm. It makes sense for magazines, where people tend to flip the pages until something catches their eye. But in online content like this, it seems that once somebody's on your webpage and past the fold, a pull quote might not have a significant impact on whether they read the article or not. And for skimming/previewing, I suspect section headings are comparatively effective. Of course, I have no data to back that up. For me, they just create stress when I'm reading. I see one of these pull quotes coming and I think "I should just skip this - I know they'll repeat themselves further down, or that this quote will be a repeat of something said earlier, so I should save myself the time and skip it." But then when I try to do that, the thought becomes, "but what if this quote is unique and not just some text copy-pasted from elsewhere? I need to read it, otherwise I might not understand the rest of this section." And of course, I see these pull quotes edging up from the bottom of the screen a few sentences in advance, and so all this thought distracts me and I invariably have to reread the surrounding text because of that. Hopefully this is something particular to me and pull quotes don't cause others this kind of irrational stress. In any case, thanks for answering my question.

cmrx64 10y ago
I do the same thing with pull quotes in any medium, not just the internet. I don't like them.
- DasIch 10y ago
  It makes sense when you don't read everything, when you're reading a newspaper or a magazine for example and only read the articles that catch your attention. I really don't see how it makes sense in the context of a single article though. If I'm already clearly reading an article, a pull quote is only going to distract me.

adrusi 10y ago

The reason that's pushed for it in the context of articles on the web is that it breaks up the wall of text, and supposedly people are less likely to stop reading in the middle of an article if there isn't a wall of text. It's a substitute for images for lazy authors.