textgoeshere

New research by the Poynter Institute recorded people’s eye movements as they criss-crossed a selection of web pages. Patterns emerged: people tended to linger on or return to the same features. Used in conjunction with other layout methods, these patterns could form a useful guide for a redesign.

Top-left dominates

The testers tended to fixate on the top-left of the page first. Only after hovering there for a moment did they then explore the rest of the page. (This is a separate phenomenon from being scroll-averse – the tendency not to scroll below the fold.)

Text beats graphics…

Somewhat surprisingly, people were drawn to dominant headlines first, not photos or graphics. They also spent significantly longer looking at text than looking photos or graphics. Even when looking at sophisticated multimedia packages, text beat graphics.

…But photos are very clickable

People in the research were very likely to click photos on the homepage – even if that did nothing. Are your homepage images links?

Smaller type scanned less

Online, people tend to scan or skim read. However, the smaller headlines/subheads are in relation to body text, the more likely the subjects were to read the body text closely, rather than scan it. When subheads are comparatively large, people tended to skim body text just like they skim the subheads.

Right side of blurb ignored

On a page made up by lots of headlines followed by short paragraphs, like the BBC News, people tended to look at only the left one-third. That makes the first few words absolutely critical. Goodness, humankind is impatient.

Shorter paragraphs draw in readers

People tended to be put off reading long paragraphs. Short paragraphs of one to two sentences encouraged readers to continue.

Summary paragraphs work

On some sites, the style of the first introductory paragraph of an article is different to the rest of the body text. For example, it’s sometimes set in italics. There was good evidence to suggest that this is effective: 95 per cent of the subjects in the research read all or most of a summary designed in this way.

Sharp writing matters

This research shows just how vital it is to compose concise, punchy text that is relevant to your audience: ultimately, quality of writing determines the effectiveness of your website.

For the full article and detailed findings, visit
www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004.