15 Interesting Facts on How People View Websites (+5 for Mobile

Do you know what is the first thing that your eye is drawn to on a website? And in what pattern do people scan your website? There have been many eyetracking tests on this subject and I’ll give you 15 most useful facts you should know.


The picture below shows 3 different websites and where people look on them. Red indicates the area, where people looked the most, yellow areas got a bit less eye-action, blue areas got the least views and the gray areas, well, people didn’t focus on them at all.


As you can see, the more people scroll down, the more they lose focus and start mainly scanning your website. So always try to place the most important information in the top part of your website.

Here are the 15 facts you should know on how people view websites.

1. Text attracts more attention than pictures.
2. People start viewing your website from the top left corner.
3. Readers ignore banners. Surprise, suprise.
4. Fancy fonts are ignored.
5. People only scan the lower parts of your website.
6. Short paragraphs work better than long ones.
7. Ads, that are placed on the top or left part of your website, get the most views.
8. Ads, that are placed inside or below an awesome piece of content, get more views.
9. Big pictures attract more attention than small ones.
10. Also headlines draw attention.
11. Visitors spend more time looking at menus and buttons than other parts of your website.
12. Lists are better at keeping your reader focused than large paragraphs.
13. Some people even completely ignore large chunks of text.
14. White space is good!
15. Menu works best when placed in the top part of your website.

Our friends at ConversionXL write that F-pattern is no longer the case for search results. However it should still hold on regular content pages and it’s not that much different from the original F-pattern.

+5 Facts on How People View Mobile Web:

1. Reader’s attention is focused more on the top left corner of a screen.
2. Keep your content short & simple. Reading long paragraphs needs concentration, which is something that mobile users don’t have.
3. Users pay most attention on the top 2/3 of the screen.
4. Mobile phone users absorb visuals more than text or content. (But if an image doesn’t supplement your content, you can do away with it).
5. Short, but hard-hitting headlines draw more attention. Make your headlines count.

There you go. Some points from this list are pretty basic and elementary, but a good reminder never hurts. So the next time when you’re writing an awesome piece of content, or building your new website, keep these points in mind. You now have the knowledge – use it!

Sources:
 https://www.dreamgrow.com/15-must-know-facts-on-how-people-view-websites/ 

BBC News | directcreative | GoogleBlog
Photo via Visual hunt

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