Eye Tracking Research Usability – Eyetracking Website Analysis
The importance of strategically structuring your content to suite the web.
Website useit.com conducts eye tracking experiments which measure attention and reading patterns of participants.
One of the major key point that Jakob Nielsen states:
Most website users don’t read all your words
Visitors:
- scan the text
- pick out headlines
- highlighted words
- bulleted lists
- links
Online people read differently, you have to write differently.
3 design elements that are most effective at attracting eyeballs:
- Plain text
- Faces
- Cleavage and other “private” body parts
People do not read majority of the websites, they Scan in an “F†pattern.
Images below show visitor reading pattern of a regular webpage(courtesy of useit.com)
From the examples above we can areas of most attention are:
- Headlines
- Area beneath the headline
- Left part of the article
It is essential to get your point across in that space.
Benefit headlines, facts, informal format is key to sparkling interest in an article.
Pages must broken down into small chucks, or bullets points presented outline biggest fact/benefits.
Another set of images concludes that people scan page in “F” manner.
E- Commerce platfrom eyetracking measurement.
Search Engine Eye Tracking Measurement(Google)
First 4 results get the most attention.
About Us eye tracking F pattern
People Scan in “F” Manner
As presented in the test, people tend to scan in more or less “F” manner, throughout pages.
This is what useit.com had to say:
…In our new eyetracking study, we recorded how 232 users looked at thousands of Web pages.
- Users first read in a horizontal movement, usually across the upper part of the content area. This initial element forms the F’s top bar.
- Next, users move down the page a bit and then read across in a second horizontal movement that typically covers a shorter area than the previous movement. This additional element forms the F’s lower bar.
- Finally, users scan the content’s left side in a vertical movement. Sometimes this is a fairly slow and systematic scan that appears as a solid stripe on an eye tracking heat map. Other times users move faster, creating a spottier heatmap. This last element forms the F’s stem.
From the test conducted by useit.com we come up with the following conclusions.
…..Users first read in a horizontal movement….
As on the images above, upper part of letter F represents a headline (<H1>) area – it is the most readable part of the page. It is crucial to the well being of conversion rate to:
- Make it informal
- Relevant
- Benefit Laden
- Keyword Rich
Number of challenges arise:
From SEO perspective, keeping keyword relevancy
From marketing making it benefit spoken, getting reader intrigued to read on.
From user experience – including enough information about the rest of the content, product.
Being the first place to be read, structuring strategic headlines is essential to success of a landing page. It is also important to remember, as stated by useit.com:
Guideline #19: Don’t use clever phrases and marketing lingo.
Guideline #63: Limit font styles and other text formatting.
Guideline #91: Don’t look like an ad.
Another technique that can be useful is putting <H2> subheading right below the <H1> headline. This will:
- Give you more room to communicate the message
- Give higher chances of raising the interest
- People are more likely to read it since it is located in the most readable area
- Keyword Opportunity
…users move down the page a bit and then read across in a second horizontal movement that typically covers a shorter area than the previous movement. This additional element forms the F’s lower bar…
This area is perfectly designated for bullets, passing a message of value and highlighting the most important information about the product. Since bullets are one of the most favorable online elements, they are suited perfectly for the task. Bullets are:
- easy to read
- scanner friendly
- pass important information in short bursts
A short, 3-4 sentence opening paragraph followed by bullets will be the most effective. After the bullets it also important to state the most important information or pass the most important benefits to the prospect.
Finally, users scan the content’s left side in a vertical movement.
As the headline, subheading and opening paragraph made their impact, users will be likely to read the most unreadable areas, which represent the vertical downward movement on the letter “F”
At that point, most of the readers simply skim through the page in a couple of seconds. It is essential to: have plenty subheadings (H2), break text into blocks no longer the 2-4 sentences, as long paragraph are rarely read on the web, unless the content is extremely unique.
If a call to action needs to be in place, highlighting it with a separate “Fill out an Application” or “Apply Now” located on the left side is going to be the most effective.
It cannot be placed in the hottest reading spots, since prospects need to get a message of value first, before seeing the “apply” button.
Placing the “apply” button on the left side(down the F line) within the following paragraph, will make the prospect stop in tracks(if its notable). As he stops, it is essential to shot bullets, making sure he gets more information about the product being offered.
It is also important to bold and highlight important words and content, as it creates interest and is more likely to be read as opposed to unformatted text.
Eye Tracking Conclusion:
Internet is completely different medium. Writing for the web is nowhere close to the offline world as stated many times by many prominent people. There is no room for warm up paragraphs(unless there is a dedicated readership) or smart talk.
Getting to the point and passing the benefits in a scannable format is key to raising CTR both from organic and PPC traffic.
To find out more about eye tracking go to http://www.useit.com/eyetracking/
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