Slashdot Mirror
Eye-tracking Study Shows How Users Scan Web Pages
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."
So that's why the big box is placed annoyingly and unavoidably right under the story post here at Slashdot.
BTW, I predict that widespread uptake of DVRs and the ability to fast forward through commercials will cause similar Innovations to occur.
Newscrawl style advertisements are coming.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
I would love to see the study redone comparing users of say IE and Firebird. I think that users like myself who don't see any ads on websites could potentially have different reading patters. I often find myself looking in the top left or center of pages first to look for new headlines and to verify which site I am at. Of course that's when I'm conciously thinking about it and is not empirical data.
I'm also worried that studies like this may be used to put advertising in different more annoying places in more annoying ways making it harder to block and ignore.
And if you are wondering how to remove all ads in firebird check this out
http://www.texturizer.net/firebird/adblock.html
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HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX Compatibility\{D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-44455354000 0}
Disable Flash:
"Compatibility Flags" = 0x400
Enable:
"Compatibility Flags" = 0x0
Mark my words you weenies: Linux will never be ready for the desktop until it's as intuitive as Windows.
I know god exists. I read it on the internet, so it must be true.
Although, banner ads appear on the top and bottom of print versions as well, at least they aren't in the middle.
"Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me."
How can they call that "usability" news? /. editor said, this info can "may be useful for developers wanting to make their pages more usable" but that sure isn't the point of the article.
Sure, like the
Usability is about helping the user make USE of the website, isn't it? Well, it seems those pesky users are getting too smart for their own good (somehow they're jumping directly to the useful parts!) -- quick, let's figure out how to stop this nonsense!
Seriously, I know that online advertising plays an important role in funding freely available sites. But on a website that's purportedly all about usability, it blows my mind that they don't even mention the negative impact that an advertising method that *really* catches the users' eyes will have. Those ads are *detracting* from the usefulness of the site; the slashdot ad box right under the story is a little annoying, because you have to scroll past it to get to what you want (the fr0st p1st, of course). Designers need to keep the balance in mind (and it shouldn't be left out of the discussion).
Personally, when I have to use IE for some reason, I suddenly remember what it's like using the an internet saturated in popup windows and manically-flashing ads... and I can't get through it. I can't concentrate enough to read an article when there's something that simply won't stop flashing right in the middle of the text.
Sure it gets my attention. My eyes can't stop jumping back to that flashing thing. Sometimes I even go to the advertised website, and submit their domain registrant's info into all available forms. Funny, that probably shows up on their statistics as another big win.
Google's text links are okay (which is a good thing, since Mozilla won't block those for me!) -- I'll even click one if it looks relevant. That's the future of web advertising, I think.
There are only 10 types of people: those who understand decimal, those who don't, and, uh, 8 other types I forget.