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Eye-tracking Study Shows How Users Scan Web Pages

Posted by timothy on from the they-look-for-fleshtones dept.

apatrick writes "An article in UsabilityNews.com describes an experiment where Internet users' eyes were tracked while they searched for information on WWW pages from three well-known newspapers. The findings indicated that people learn very quickly where ads are usually placed on web pages, and then they no longer look there. The results also show that users look to the left hand side for navigation menus, and they scan from the middle of the page outward. Such results may be useful for developers wanting to make their pages more usable, or to attract the users' attention."

3 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. How to disable flash in IE by Goyuix · · Score: 3, Informative

    While not entirely on-topic, I use this little tidbit to disable flash while I am surfing, only flipping it back on when I absolutely need to (like for watching the latest Strong Bad Email)

    HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX Compatibility\{D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-44455354000 0}

    Disable Flash:
    "Compatibility Flags" = 0x400

    Enable:
    "Compatibility Flags" = 0x0

    Enjoy your somewhat more advertising free world.

  2. Good link for industry aggregates by prostoalex · · Score: 2, Informative

    Web Design Best Practices, was a research project to see where the majority of sites place their links, shopping carts, global navigation, search boxes, etc. Unfortunately, the site seems to have disappeared, so the link is Google cache.

    Here's the surviving mirror in Russian with links to the resources in English if you scroll down.

  3. Scroll bar?!? by Vaevictis666 · · Score: 2, Informative
    Yeah but who uses the scroll bar for regular navigation anyways? As I'm reading an article I use either my scroll wheel, the page down key, or the spacebar to scroll the page. Home brings me to the top, End to the bottom.

    Only time I ever use the scroll bar is if I know the approximate location of what I'm lookin for on the page, and even then it's easier (in firebird) to just start typing and find-as-you-type picks up on it. (Note that it's better if you disable the option that only does find-as-you-type for links)