How Viewers read a web page

Interesting blog entry about how viewers read a screen. What I learned from Eye Tracking Using an eye tracking programme the video plots how people scan across a screen. Often people go quickly from one thing to the next. There is little evidence of people actually reading the text. Most people are scanning for a subheading or picture that interests them.

See also Pro Blogger

What people look at:

  • Headings
  • pictures (including thumbnail
  • Buttons and Menus
  • Lists are popular – blocks of text aren’t.

A useful idea discussed in a previous blog entry is the idea of "don’t make me think " Users of a website don’t want to have to work anything out, they certainly don’t have time to read instructions. (I think even contributors to websites are a bit like this as well)

An interesting comment that Seth Godin made is that if a website is a little different it catches peoples attention.

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