Top 5 Eye Tracking Usability Findings
It’s always interesting to learn how eye tracking is being used to improve web usability. A recent article on Tendocom brought up the top 5 eye tracking usability findings of 2009:
People Read in ‘F’ Patterns: Eye tracking heat maps have shown that whether internet users are viewing Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) or looking at an article, they scan for relevant information instead of reading. The information at the top of the page is scanned most often. As users move down the page, each line of information is scanned less. This can be a subconscious efficiency behavior. The farther a user goes down the page scanning for relevancy, the less likely they find relevant information. So always make your point in the first paragraph or even the first sentence of your content. Tell your users what to expect and then back up those expectations with details. In a way, it’s like creating a piece of content in reverse order: the conclusion first, the body next, and the introduction last.
The Golden Triangle: Since users spend so much time scanning for relevancy in the top left corner of page, this prime real estate has become what is known as “The Golden Triangle.” Pictures, videos, and audio are more useful if they are embedded in this area. Reading and scanning content takes effort, and placing multimedia content in the golden triangle relieves the need to scan for relevant information. The users just have to sit back and immerse themselves in the experience.
Banner Blindness: People are more blind to advertising than ever. What is not clear is what kind of ads are ignored most. How effective are relevant ads matched to the on-page content at reducing banner blindness? Another advertising medium that needs to be investigated further is the embedded text ads that are heavily used on some web sites. These ads looks like normal underlined links. When a user hovers their mouse over the link, an ad pops up showing either a video or animation. It is evident that traditional advertising banners are not as effective as they used to be. What advertisers should understand is the need to engage versus distract. Engaging the user means giving them something useful that they’re already looking for. Distraction is the use of ads that are not relevant to what the user is already looking – the only way to get the users to look at the ad is distracting the user’s attention with animation or sounds.
Talking Heads Bore: Another interesting finding is that videos of nothing but a person talking to the camera tend to lose the user’s interest very quickly. Maybe “talking head videos” remind the users of their past academic lectures or technical conferences. What is not clear is whether having attractive people in videos improves a user’s attention span. Does having a female talking in a video make for a longer attention span than having a male? What about the expressiveness and enthusiasm of the person talking?
Email Introductions Ignored: People these days are inundated with emails. Communications from co-workers, friends, and family are creating an ever increasing amount of mail to sift through. It’s not surprising people are finding more effective ways to optimize their time, reading emails by skipping introductions and scanning for relevant information.
How do you read the Web? Eye-tracking data reveals 5 key findings!
Related articles:
- Eyetracking Web Usability and the Don’t Make Me Think Methodology
- More Eye Tracking Tips for Web Usability
- The Latest in Eye Tracking Web Usability Research pt2
- Tips From Eye Tracking Studies on Website Design
- The Latest in Eye Tracking Web Usability Research pt1
- Eye Tracking: Facebook and LinkedIn Usability
- The Latest in Eye Tracking Web Usability Research pt3
- Eye Tracking: Readers Run Out of Gas Below the Fold
- Eye Tracking Looks at How We Rely on Google for Answers
- Eye Tracking: Online Social Networks and Web Usability Testing