How Readers Read Websites
A fellow we've often called the smartest guy on the internet - the user interface expert Jakob Nielsen - has released some details from his latest study on how website visitors read websites.
More accurately, they don't exactly read:
F for fast. That's how users read your precious content.In a few seconds, their eyes move at amazing speeds across your website’s words in a pattern that's very different from what you learned in school.
In our new eyetracking study, we recorded how 232 users looked at thousands of Web pages.
How do they scan?
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 eyetracking heatmap. Other times users move faster, creating a spottier heatmap. This last element forms the F's stem.
So, what does this mean for you?
Users won't read your text thoroughly in a word-by-word manner. Exhaustive reading is rare, especially when prospective customers are conducting their initial research to compile a shortlist of vendors. Yes, some people will read more, but most won't.
The first two paragraphs must state the most important information. There's some hope that users will actually read this material, though they'll probably read more of the first paragraph than the second.
Start subheads, paragraphs, and bullet points with information-carrying words that users will notice when scanning down the left side of your content in the final stem of their F-behavior. They'll read the third word on a line much less often than the first two words.
Kari Chisholm | April 20, 2006 | Comments (3) |
Your Name: Your Personal Note: | Your Email: Friends' Emails*: |
Comments
Interesting... Headline and first subhead seem important, but also perhaps a clever indentation can help draw the eye to that lower prong of the "F."
Based on this, if you have a single column static menu, it may be better to place that on the right of a page, rather than interfere with this pattern?
Posted by: CapCaucus | Apr 21, 2006 8:05:50 AM
Cap -- I'm not sure moving your vertical navigation rail to the right makes sense.
While many usability consultants (Jakob included) have lamented the left-side nav rail - since on the right, next to the slider, you'd move your mouse less - the reality is that SOOO many websites put it on the left that it's a defacto standard.
Posted by: Kari Chisholm | Apr 23, 2006 12:04:34 AM
“If you really want to know if your Web site works, ask your next door neighbor to try using it, while you watch.
(You bring the beer.)”
saw that at http://www.sensible.com/index.html
Posted by: Chuck Sheketoff | Apr 25, 2006 10:28:32 AM
