Inside the Minds of Websurfers
USA Today reports on a Neilsen survey that revealed many interesting facts about the way people surf. The study also had some interesting findings:The study used eye-tracking equipment to obtain these results.Individuals read Web pages in an "F" pattern. They're more inclined to read longer sentences at the top of a page and less and less as they scroll down. That makes the first two words of a sentence very important. "People are extremely good at screening out things and focusing in on a small number of salient page elements," says Jakob Nielsen, a principal at the firm. Surfers connect well with images of people looking directly at them. It helps if the person in the photo is attractive, but not too good looking. Photos of people who are clearly professional models are a turnoff. "The person has to be approachable," Pernice Coyne says. Images in the middle of a page can present an obstacle course. People respond to pictures that provide useful information, not just decoration. Consumers will peek at ads in search engines as a "secondary thing," Nielsen says, since they usually have specific product targets in mind.
Posted on March 27, 2006
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