1“Rita Levi Montalcini” Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.See also: our new eyetracking study 11 years later confirmed these findings.Federica Scarpina 1,2 * and Sofia Tagini 2,3
#Watch the f word 2017 online full#
Full Reportįull eyetracking report on how users read on the web is available for download. The biggest determinant for content usability is how users read online - and because people read differently, you have to write differently. We also have many findings on how people look at website images. For example, users scan in a different, more directed way when they're looking for prices or other numbers, and an interesting hot-potato behavior determines how users look at a list of search engine ads. Every page has reading issues beyond the dominant F pattern I'm discussing here. It's fascinating to watch the slow-motion replay of users' eye movements as they read and scan across a page. They'll read the third word on a line much less often than the first two words. 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.There's some hope that users will actually read this material, though they'll probably read more of the first paragraph than the second. The first two paragraphs must state the most important information.Yes, some people will read more, but most won't. Exhaustive reading is rare, especially when prospective customers are conducting their initial research to compile a shortlist of vendors. Users won't read your text thoroughly in a word-by-word manner.The F pattern's implications for Web design are clear and show the importance of following the guidelines for writing for the Web instead of repurposing print content: In this case, both headlines proved equally interesting to users, though users typically read less of the second area they view on a page. On the SERP (right example), the second crossbar of the F is longer than the top crossbar, mainly because the second headline is longer than the first. Users also allocated significant fixation time to a box in the upper right part of the page where the price and "add to cart" button are found. On the e-commerce page (middle example), the second crossbar of the F is lower than usual because of the intervening product image. The F viewing pattern is a rough, general shape rather than a uniform, pixel-perfect behavior. If you squint and focus on the red (most-viewed) areas, all three heatmaps show the expected F pattern. a search engine results page (SERP far right).a product page on an e-commerce site (center), and.an article in the "about us" section of a corporate website (far left),.The above heatmaps show how users read three different types of Web pages: The areas where users looked the most are colored red the yellow areas indicate fewer views, followed by the least-viewed blue areas. Heatmaps from user eyetracking studies of three websites.
Generally, however, reading patterns roughly resemble an F, though the distance between the top and lower bar varies. Other times they'll only read across once, making the pattern look like an inverted L (with the crossbar at the top). Sometimes users will read across a third part of the content, making the pattern look more like an E than an F. Obviously, users' scan patterns are not always comprised of exactly three parts. Other times users move faster, creating a spottier heatmap. Sometimes this is a fairly slow and systematic scan that appears as a solid stripe on an eyetracking heatmap.
Users first read in a horizontal movement, usually across the upper part of the content area.This dominant reading pattern looks somewhat like an F and has the following three components: We found that users' main reading behavior was fairly consistent across many different sites and tasks. In our new eyetracking study, we recorded how 232 users looked at thousands of Web pages. In a few seconds, their eyes move at amazing speeds across your websites words in a pattern that's very different from what you learned in school. That's how users read your precious content.