You Lookin’ at Me?
Published 10/5/04
Filed under: Miscellaneous
What do people look at when they view a Web page? The Poynter Institute found out. Sort of.
It did an admittedly unscientific study of how people navigate a Web page with their eyes. (It worked with the Estlow Center for Journalism & New Media and Eyetools as well.)
The study is called Eyetrack III (FAQ here) and is “research that tracks where a person’s eyes look while reading, then analyzes the data to reveal patterns.”
The site warns:
It is a preliminary study of several dozen people conducted in San Francisco. It is not an exhaustive exploration that we can extrapolate to the larger population. It is a mix of “findings” based on controlled variables, and “observations” where testing was not as tightly controlled. The researchers went “wide,” not “deep” — covering a lot of ground in terms of website design and multimedia factors. We hope that Eyetrack III is not seen as an end in itself, but rather as the beginning of a wave of eyetracking research that will benefit the news industry.
Regardless, it’s a very, very interesting bit of info for Web designers.
See it at http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/main.htm.
