Re: Web Writing: Numbers - spell out or not?

[John Cornellier <tw -at- cornellier -dot- com>]

Further to Dick's description of a survey which suggested that written-out numbers offered better usability, I'd like  to offer the following anecdotal evidence:

I've lived in lots of different countries where I've had to learn foreign (to me) languages. I've noticed that even where I'm not yet fluent in a language, my brain seems to store numbers as words in the language in which they were given to me. So if a Norwegian gives me directions, I might recall "turn onto Route Atten (18)"

Similarly with phone numbers, if I have to write down or dial a number I generally have to say it in my head first, in the language in which it was given to me.

This suggests that numbers are remembered verbally and not as digits.

That said, it's easier to _read_ large numbers in digits than written out. Reading "Price: one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine dollars and ninety nine cents" takes some client-side processing. But if you see "Price: $1,999.99" you immediately think "two thousand bucks" or "2K". 

John Cornellier
tech writer, Schlumberger, Norway


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