Want to know where your surfers' eyes look?

[Simon]

Okay... this may not be for everyone, and doesn't have much to offer those who build mostly TGP pages and galleries, but...

This study was done regarding "news" websites, but some of it can be valuable to anyone who develops sites/pages with lots of text, Some real blogs, for instance, would fall into this group. Anyway, just offered for those it can help. Not a short or quick read, so you may want to mark their page for reading later.


The Best of Eyetrack III:
What We Saw When We Looked Through Their Eyes
By Steve Outing and Laura Ruel
Eyetrack III project managers

Article url:
http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/main.htm

Some snippets:

Dominant headlines most often draw the eye first upon entering the page -- especially when they are in the upper left, and most often (but not always) when in the upper right. Photographs, contrary to what you might expect, aren't typically the entry point to a homepage. Text rules on the PC screen -- both in order viewed and in overall time spent looking at it.

Want people to read, not scan? Consider small type
The Eyetrack III researchers discovered something important when testing headline and type size on homepages: Smaller type encourages focused viewing behavior (that is, reading the words), while larger type promotes lighter scanning. In general, our testing found that people spent more time focused on small type than large type. Larger type resulted in more scanning of the page -- fewer words overall were fixated on -- as people looked around for words or phrases that captured*their attention.

Underlined headlines discouraged testers from viewing blurbs on the homepage. This may be related to a phenomenon that we noted throughout the testing: visual breaks -- like a line or rule -- discouraged people from looking at items beyond the break, like a blurb. (This also affects ads, which we address below.)

Text ads were viewed most intently, of all the types we tested. On our test pages, text ads got an average eye duration time of nearly 7 seconds; the best display-type ad got only 1.6 seconds, on average.

Size matters. Bigger ads had a better chance of being seen. Small ads on the right side of homepages typically were seen by only one-third of our testers; the rest never once cast an eye on them. On article pages, "half-page" ads were the most intensely viewed by our test subjects. Yet, they were only seen 38 percent of the time; most people never looked at them. Article ads that got seen the most were ones inset into article text. "Skyscraper" ads (thin verticals running in the left or right column) came in third place.

--

There is a LOT more in the article at...
http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/main.htm


Simon

[MrYum]

Very interesting read Simon...thanks

[ponygirl]

yes, definitely very interesting...some of that I (amazingly haha) knew instinctively, some was a bit of a surprise but makes sense. I think it applies perfectly to our model. Thanks

Ponygirl

[kristian]

Great post, Simon

[RedCherry]

Great post! I'm incorporating a lot of this into a redesign I'm working on today. When I read this, I think BLOG and why those are popular with webmasters, lots of small type, ads embedded in the type....guess they are on to something.

[tickler]

"Skyscraper" ads (thin verticals running in the left or right column) came in third place.

Probably not a good ideal to run them on the right side. I notice that on a lot of places, like The Hun, that my browser size cuts them off unless I scroll right.

[RedCherry]

Originally Posted by tickler

Probably not a good ideal to run them on the right side. I notice that on a lot of places, like The Hun, that my browser size cuts them off unless I scroll right.

It is if you keep in 800x600 mode site design. I heard a long time ago, put your ads by the right side, because the mouse is usually there anyways because of the scroll bar. They are less apt to click on ads on the left, because you have to move the mouse over to the other side of the page. Sounds kinda lame, but I've always remembered that.

[MC-Julius]

nice post very interesting

[Useless]

Originally Posted by RedCherry

I heard a long time ago, put your ads by the right side, because the mouse is usually there anyways because of the scroll bar. They are less apt to click on ads on the left, because you have to move the mouse over to the other side of the page. Sounds kinda lame, but I've always remembered that.

I never used to think about such shit , but a couple of years ago I saw Raven tell someone to swap their Enter and Exit links on a site so that the Enter was on the right, closer to the natural position of the mouse/cursor - and it really rings true. It's one of those things that, once someone points it out to you, it suddenly appears so obvious and you wonder why it hadn't occurred to you before. Even if you are one of the oddballs who keeps the mouse physically on the left, the cursur will still tend to be on right side of the screen due to the vertical scroll bar.

[tickler]

Originally Posted by RedCherry

It is if you keep in 800x600 mode site design.

Ahh, but, I am talking about people like me who don't surf with the window maximized. I use multiple windows(5 open right now) about 650w500h so the right side goes into the scroll area.

[Useless]

Originally Posted by tickler

Ahh, but, I am talking about people like me who don't surf with the window maximized. I use multiple windows(5 open right now) about 650w500h so the right side goes into the scroll area.

You need to stop doing that. You're going to miss all of our wonderful ads.

[KG Gary]

Great link, Simon! Extremely interesting! Thanks!


Like most people, when I'm making my freesites I try and mix up the way I present the info and ads etc to see what works best for me. I sometimes deliberately make "ugly" sites, or simple sites etc.

At first I thought that there's an argument here for ditching some types of banners/banner placement, but if certain banners are largely ignored that could be a good way of diverting the attention onto other more focused text ads.
Hmmmm.
Hmmmm.
Very interesting indeed.

[RedCherry]

Originally Posted by tickler

Ahh, but, I am talking about people like me who don't surf with the window maximized. I use multiple windows(5 open right now) about 650w500h so the right side goes into the scroll area.

I forget people do that. with dual monitors, I always surf full screen. I also use netcaptor, that is a tabbed browser, so I might have a dozen windows open but they are all tabbed on top of each other.

[tickler]

Originally Posted by RedCherry

I forget people do that. .... so I might have a dozen windows open but they are all tabbed on top of each other.

With a 23" monitor and high resolution I can pretty much see what is going on in all of them.

[Boogie]

great post. great read. great info

[SirMoby]

Originally Posted by Boogie

great post. great read. great info

Boogie told me manay years ago that he believed business always went left to right. I had insurance salesmen tell me the same thing and noticed where Japanese negotiators always sat and left room for us to sit.

Of course in porn the eye always follows the big tits

[virgohippy]

Brilliant! I love it when I find out my previous assumptions were wrong. =)

It drives me nuts when I see people viewing pages in reduced windows. If you need to have mulitiple windows open at a time, just be like a virgohippy and use two screens! =D