Eyetrack Study defines where People look

Eyetrack III is a project website which takes apart the process of building a news website and reconstitutes it with informed advice based on a sizeable study with an eyetracker.

Although it is aimed at the news market - its line is 'online news consumer behavior in the age of multimedia' - there are clear messages about designing layouts on the page for anyone who is interested in positioning for attention.

The technology used is a non-intrusive variety where a camera in the monitor records activity, so that no headgear is restricting the study participants.

Detailed findings include using smaller font to promote reading and larger font to promote scanning. I didn't notice a caveat about accessbility here, but even if these considerations are ignored, there is much subtle and thought-provoking material, including some useful diagrams.

There is also a lot of it. There is even a forum where others are starting to add tips. Miss it at your peril. To give an idea of depth, subsections include:

Homepage Design
Design Comparisons
Eye Viewing Patterns
Headlines and Blurbs
Headline Size
Font Size
Navigation
Compact & Extended Pages

Article-Page Design
Summary Paragraphs
Paragraph Length
Number of Columns
Subheads
Text & Images

Images
Sizes and Faces

Advertising Results
Avoiding Ads
Barriers to Seeing Ads
Text Ads
Ad Size
Ads in Text Body
Mouseovers
Animation
Page Position
Pop-ups

Multimedia Results
Recall/Comprehension
Multimedia Features

Associated Link: Eyetrack III

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