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Eyetracking Articles & Videos

  • F-Pattern in Reading Digital Content

    Eyetracking research shows people read Web content in the F-pattern. The results highlight the importance of following guidelines for writing for the Web.

  • The Talking-Head Video 2.0: Findings from Eyetracking Research

    Even a talking-head video can keep people engaged. Take advantage of residual fixations upon scene changes; vary the facial expression, subject position, and even camera angle to reawaken the user’s attention.

  • Scanning Patterns on the Web Are Optimized for the Current Task

    How users attend to information on a page depends on their tasks and goals, as confirmed by new eyetracking research. Good design promotes efficient scanning. In usability studies, task formulation may tip users to discover features.

  • Photos as Web Content

    Users pay close attention to photos and other images that contain relevant information but ignore fluffy pictures used to "jazz up" web pages.

  • Corporate Blogs: Front Page Structure

    Showing summaries of many articles is more likely to draw in users than providing full articles, which can quickly exhaust reader interest.

  • Website Response Times

    Slow page rendering today is typically caused by server delays or overly fancy page widgets, not by big images. Users still hate slow sites and don't hesitate telling us.

  • Horizontal Attention Leans Left (Early Research)

    Web users spend 69% of their time viewing the left half of the page and 30% viewing the right half. A conventional layout is thus more likely to make sites profitable.

  • Scrolling and Attention (Original Research Study)

    Web users spend 80% of their time looking at information above the page fold. Although users do scroll, they allocate only 20% of their attention to below the fold.

  • Investor Relations (IR) on Corporate Websites

    Individual investors are intimidated by overly complex IR sites and need simple summaries of financial data. Both individual and professional investors want the company's own story and investment vision.

  • Press Area Usability

    As 3 studies of journalists show, they use the Web as a major research tool, exhibit high search dominance, and are impatient with bloated sites that don't serve their needs or list a PR contact.

  • Fancy Formatting, Fancy Words = Looks Like a Promotion = Ignored

    A site did most things right, but still had a miserable 14% success rate for its most important task. The reason? Users ignored a key area because it resembled a promotion.

  • Banner Blindness: The Original Eyetracking Research

    Users rarely look at display advertisements on websites. Of the 4 design elements that do attract a few ad fixations, one is unethical and reduces the value of advertising networks.

  • Show Numbers as Numerals When Writing for Online Readers

    It's better to use '23' than 'twenty-three' to catch users' eyes when they scan Web pages for facts, according to eyetracking data.

  • Email Newsletters: Surviving Inbox Congestion

    Newsletter usability has increased since our last study, but the competition for users' attention has also grown with the ever-increasing glut of information.

  • F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content (original study)

    Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe.

  • Talking-Head Video Is Boring Online

    Eyetracking data show that users are easily distracted when watching video on websites, especially when the video shows a talking head and is optimized for broadcast rather than online viewing.

  • Eyetracking Study of Web Readers

    Poynter study confirms older Web content studies: plain headlines work best; users hunt for info, often ignore graphics, and interlace sites.

  • Love at First Sight in Eyetracking

    When users search for information, they don't always keep looking for the best solution. In our eyetracking studies 20% of the time, users make do with the first result and don't look any further.

  • The Pinball Pattern of Scanning Search Results Pages

    Today, a SERP (search engine results page) contains so many design elements that users don't have a simple way of picking out their preferred link. Eyetracking studies show that users' eyes bounce around the page between items in a scan pattern that resembles a pinball machine game.

  • Change Blindness in User Interfaces

    Change blindness is the tendency for people to overlook things that change outside their focus of attention. In user interface design, this explains why screen changes that seem striking to the designer can be completely ignored by users.

  • Banner Blindness: Ad-Like Elements Divert Attention

    Recent eyetracking studies confirm an old finding: People tend to ignore design elements that signal advertisements.

  • Attention Leans Left on Websites

    Eyetracking research shows people spend disproportionately more viewing time on the left half of the page versus on the right half.

  • Eyetracking Shows How Task Scenarios Influence Where People Look

    Task scenarios are core to usability studies. The way researchers write tasks can bias usability results by influencing where people focus their attention.

  • F-Pattern in Reading Digital Content

    Eyetracking research shows people read Web content in the F-pattern. The results highlight the importance of following guidelines for writing for the Web.

  • The Lawn Mower Eyetracking Pattern for Scanning Comparison Tables

    Users are likely to methodically scan comparison tables row by row, from right to left and back again.

  • The Love-at-First-Sight Gaze Pattern on Search-Results Pages

    Eyetracking studies show that users sometimes look at only a single result on a search-results page because that result is good enough for their needs.

  • How Search Engines Shape Gaze Patterns During Information Seeking: Google vs. Baidu

    Search-engine design alters users’ gaze patterns on search-engine results pages, but only when users find the information on the page relevant to their current task.

  • How People Read Online: New and Old Findings

    Looking back at findings from a series of eyetracking studies over 13 years, we see that fundamental scanning behaviors remain constant, even as designs change.

  • Complex Search-Results Pages Change Search Behavior: The Pinball Pattern

    Because today’s search-results pages have many possible complex layouts, users don’t always process search results sequentially. They distribute their attention more variably across the page than in the past.

  • Text Scanning Patterns: Eyetracking Evidence

    Eyetracking research shows that there are 4 main patterns that people use to scan textual information on webpages: F-pattern, spotted pattern, layer-cake pattern, and commitment pattern.

  • Setup of an Eyetracking Study

    If you’re planning on running your own eyetracking study, pay attention to equipment, supplies, and placement to ensure high quality data.

  • The Layer-Cake Pattern of Scanning Content on the Web

    When headings and subheadings visually stand out on the page and are descriptive, users engage in an efficient scanning pattern that allows them to quickly find the information that they need.

  • Banner Blindness Revisited: Users Dodge Ads on Mobile and Desktop

    Users have learned to ignore content that resembles ads, is close to ads, or appears in locations traditionally dedicated to ads.

  • Scrolling and Attention

    People scroll vertically more than they used to, but new eyetracking data shows that they will still look more above the page fold than below it.

  • F-Shaped Pattern of Reading on the Web: Misunderstood, But Still Relevant (Even on Mobile)

    Eyetracking research shows that people scan webpages and phone screens in various patterns, one of them being the shape of the letter F. Eleven years after discovering this pattern, we revisit what it means today.

  • Exhaustive Review or “I Can’t Believe It’s Not There” Phenomenon: Evidence from Eyetracking

    Repeatedly scanning the same content can indicate confusion or engagement. Often, it happens because users’ expectations are not met.

  • Horizontal Attention Leans Left

    Users spend 80% of the viewing time on the left half of the page vs. 20% on the right half. Standard designs will maximize user efficiency and company profits.

  • Flat UI Elements Attract Less Attention and Cause Uncertainty

    Flat interfaces often use weak signifiers. In an eyetracking experiment comparing different kinds of clickability clues, UIs with weak signifiers required more user effort than strong ones.

  • The Talking-Head Video 2.0: Findings from Eyetracking Research

    Even a talking-head video can keep people engaged. Take advantage of residual fixations upon scene changes; vary the facial expression, subject position, and even camera angle to reawaken the user’s attention.

  • Scanning Patterns on the Web Are Optimized for the Current Task

    How users attend to information on a page depends on their tasks and goals, as confirmed by new eyetracking research. Good design promotes efficient scanning. In usability studies, task formulation may tip users to discover features.

  • Photos as Web Content

    Users pay close attention to photos and other images that contain relevant information but ignore fluffy pictures used to "jazz up" web pages.

  • Corporate Blogs: Front Page Structure

    Showing summaries of many articles is more likely to draw in users than providing full articles, which can quickly exhaust reader interest.

  • Website Response Times

    Slow page rendering today is typically caused by server delays or overly fancy page widgets, not by big images. Users still hate slow sites and don't hesitate telling us.

  • Horizontal Attention Leans Left (Early Research)

    Web users spend 69% of their time viewing the left half of the page and 30% viewing the right half. A conventional layout is thus more likely to make sites profitable.