Graphs

Topics covered
How to attract attention with web page design
Making predictable, scannable pages to improve readability
Average time and fixations spent on different page types and designing f
or them
Specific elements people look at and read, and why
Writing and arranging content to lead people through your site
Gaze patterns users commonly exhibit and accommodating these behaviors
F-pattern
Layer Cake Pattern
Bypassing Pattern
Spotted Pattern
Commitment Pattern
Scanning vs. reading, why people do it, and how to drive user behavior w
ith your design
Page design patterns for specific pages such as article pages, segmented pag
es, and search engine results pages (SERPs)
Gaze patterns commonly seen on SERPs and why these occur
Answer adequacy: Users find answers by consulting just the result titles
and descriptions shown on the SERP
Kick effect: People look at the last result on a SERP before leaving the
page. (The tenth organic result, on a page of 10 results, is the lowest result
looked at in 12% of cases versus 7% combined for the seventh, eighth, and ninth
results. In 59% of cases people looked no farther than the third organic result.
)
Other patterns such as skipping, backtracking, love at first sight, zigz
ag, re-acclimating, and bypassing
Phrases that attract people, appeal to prurient interests, surprise, or
degrade credibility
Encouraging reading through web formatting techniques
Writing styles that improve comprehension
Using headings, subheadings, and page priority
how to get these right
Information-bearing words in links and leading sentences, and their posi
tive effect on usability and scanning
Eye-catching text elements such as capital letters and bulleted lists ca
n create interest. People looked at 29% of words that appear in all capital lett
ers. People look at lists with bullets more often than lists without bullets (70
% vs. 55%, respectively).
Writing for people with low literacy
Fixed vs. liquid layout, and column width: The positives and negatives as th
ey relate to scan patterns
Miscues that entice users to spend fixations on them at the wrong time and f
or the wrong reasons
Table layout for easiest data consumption
Dealing with complex content
Plan for scanning behaviors
Exhaustive review: People look extensively and repeatedly at an area or
page because they expect the information they want to be there, but they cannot
find it.
Directed scanning: A person looks for specific information such as a nam
e or word and expects to find it on the page.
Motivated scanning: Scan patterns fueled by good page layout, interestin
g content, personal interest, or a trusted suggestion.
Impressionable scanning: A person is more open to reading the words as t
he author has written them.
Research Method

This report is based on a research study with 300 people aged 18 to 64 years. Th
e method we used is Eyetracking, in which we followed people s eye movement as the
y attempted activities on websites.
In addition to completing their own tasks, we asked people to attempt some of ou
r prepared tasks (85 tasks total), ranging from very specific to very broad acti
vities.
We conducted the study in an office and tracked each person s eyes using eyetracki
ng technology. The researcher sat in the same room with the participant and obse
rve the participant s screen in real-time using an external monitor.
After the study sessions, we analyzed each of the 1.5 million fixations that we
captured. All of the studies took place in the United States, in New York City,
NY and Boston, MA.