Websites & patient experience · Website help · Zoom and typography

Keep content intact when visitors increase text spacing

Custom spacing preferences can make lines or words taller than a tightly designed container allows. Visitors may encounter overlapping labels or missing lower lines even though standard text looks fine.

What to change

Ask the supplier to demonstrate resilience to user text-spacing adjustments as part of the page's acceptance review.

A worked example

Illustrative example

A two-line button label becomes three lines under increased spacing, but the button grows and the next control moves down without overlap.

How to check the result

Accept when the tested spacing changes do not remove information or functionality, and affected components adjust without forcing smaller text.

A mistake to avoid

Checking paragraph text alone misses many failures in compact controls, badges and input labels.

Your action checklist

Use these checks to prepare a discussion with your team or supplier. Tick a check when you have recorded the decision or evidence, rather than when a feature has simply been promised.

Decisions to record

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Healthcare website design showing connected desktop and mobile service and enquiry layouts.
Make the service and next step clear on every screen.
Healthcare website accessibility illustrated by a focus outline, keyboard key, contrast samples and form.
Review keyboard access, contrast and understandable form fields.
Healthcare website testing with desktop and mobile forms, a checklist and success and error states.
Check complete journeys and explain failures clearly.

Further reading

These primary sources provide additional context for the project decisions above.

Related decisions

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