Eyetracking Articles & Videos

  • Flat UI Elements Attract Less Attention and Cause Uncertainty

    Flat interfaces often use weak signifiers. In an eyetracking experiment comparing different kinds of clickability clues, UIs with weak signifiers required more user effort than strong ones.

  • F-Pattern in Reading Digital Content

    Eyetracking research shows people read Web content in the F-pattern. The results highlight the importance of following guidelines for writing for the Web.

  • The Talking-Head Video 2.0: Findings from Eyetracking Research

    Even a talking-head video can keep people engaged. Take advantage of residual fixations upon scene changes; vary the facial expression, subject position, and even camera angle to reawaken the user’s attention.

  • Scanning Patterns on the Web Are Optimized for the Current Task

    How users attend to information on a page depends on their tasks and goals, as confirmed by new eyetracking research. Good design promotes efficient scanning. In usability studies, task formulation may tip users to discover features.

  • Photos as Web Content

    Users pay close attention to photos and other images that contain relevant information but ignore fluffy pictures used to "jazz up" web pages.

  • Corporate Blogs: Front Page Structure

    Showing summaries of many articles is more likely to draw in users than providing full articles, which can quickly exhaust reader interest.

  • Website Response Times

    Slow page rendering today is typically caused by server delays or overly fancy page widgets, not by big images. Users still hate slow sites and don't hesitate telling us.

  • Horizontal Attention Leans Left (Early Research)

    Web users spend 69% of their time viewing the left half of the page and 30% viewing the right half. A conventional layout is thus more likely to make sites profitable.

  • Scrolling and Attention (Original Research Study)

    Web users spend 80% of their time looking at information above the page fold. Although users do scroll, only 20% of their attention goes to content below the fold.

  • Investor Relations (IR) on Corporate Websites

    Individual investors are intimidated by overly complex IR sites and need simple summaries of financial data. Both individual and professional investors want the company's own story and investment vision.

  • Press Area Usability

    As 3 studies of journalists show, they use the Web as a major research tool, exhibit high search dominance, and are impatient with bloated sites that don't serve their needs or list a PR contact.

  • Fancy Formatting, Fancy Words = Looks Like a Promotion = Ignored

    A site did most things right, but still had a miserable 14% success rate for its most important task. The reason? Users ignored a key area because it resembled a promotion.

  • Banner Blindness: The Original Eyetracking Research

    Users rarely look at display advertisements on websites. Of the 4 design elements that do attract a few ad fixations, one is unethical and reduces the value of advertising networks.

  • Show Numbers as Numerals When Writing for Online Readers

    It's better to use '23' than 'twenty-three' to catch users' eyes when they scan Web pages for facts, according to eyetracking data.

  • Email Newsletters: Surviving Inbox Congestion

    Newsletter usability has increased since our last study, but the competition for users' attention has also grown with the ever-increasing glut of information.

  • F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content (Original Study)

    Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe.

  • Talking-Head Video Is Boring Online

    Eyetracking data show that users are easily distracted when watching video on websites, especially when the video shows a talking head and is optimized for broadcast rather than online viewing.

  • Eyetracking Study of Web Readers

    Poynter study confirms older Web content studies: plain headlines work best; users hunt for info, often ignore graphics, and interlace sites.