The eyes have it

So, you want to create an effective website. Do you know where to put the most critical data? How to design the page to optimize usability? You should know what eye tracking tells us.

Using a combination of complex hardware and data analysis, eye tracking maps a tester's eye movements across a computer screen and assesses the amount of mental strain exerted at any given moment. It does this by recording scanning patterns of the eye, measuring pupil dilation (which correlates to cognitive effort) and taking over 250 observations of each eye per second.

• A minuscule percentage of the subjects scrolled down to see what was being offered below the browser's bottom border. Clearly, home pages are viewed as portals to get where the visitor wants to go...not lengthy destination pages.
• Web visitors look to the upper middle of the home page first. Putting your navigation tools there allow them to get where they want to go fast. Over 20% of their attention was focused here.
• Text heavy sites are more difficult to use. Most visitors only read the first two lines before moving on.
• Clean, non-cluttered sites produced higher success rates. Users didn't have to filter through as much unnecessary information.
• Buttons/Icons with 1-3 word descriptions got the most use. Wordy button labels got the least.
• Banner ads, on average, earned about 13% of the viewer's time and interest.

Before you design your web page...keep in mind that just like any other visual medium, you have to have a flow pattern for your viewer's eyes to follow. Don't make them work to get the message.

Comments

[Mike Sansone]

All great points, Drew. A tool I've used is Crazy Egg (http://www.crazyegg.com ) which measures click-through in various ways, including a heat map. Click tracking.

[Drew McLellan]

Mike,

Hmm, that's a tool I have not heard of yet. I'll have to check it out. I'm going to have to go play with that a little bit!

Drew

[Elizabeth Anderson]

The Eyes Have It is a good take on the importance of appearance to any web site. I found this out the hard way, then went to a graphic designer to design a new home page and build a computer friendly web site. I love my new site (http://www.giftideahelp.com) Your article should be required reading for every person with a site on the Internet.

Beth

[Drew McLellan]

Beth,

Thanks for your comments. You're right -- a strong web design is a critical tool in today's business climiate.

I'm glad you were able to find a pro who could help you rachet up your game!

Drew