September 8, 2004, 10.05am • 33 comments » • 2,209 Views

Eyes down for online news sites

Poynter’s latest Eyetrack study, which brings a whole new meaning to “capturing eyeballs” by following the eye movements of visitors to news websites, contains, at first, some typical findings. Readers first eye up the top-left of a page, then gravitate to the main headlines just below.

But here’s an interesting finding:-

Smaller type encourages focused viewing behavior (that is, reading the words), while larger type promotes lighter scanning. Larger type resulted in more scanning of the page as people looked around for words or phrases that captured their attention.

That’s surprising. If, as we’re led to believe, “people don’t read online, they scan“, what could account for people scanning right past the obvious headlines and search out the smaller tidbits? A desire to bypass the default news agenda and look for the rest? Have readers already read the top news items elsewhere and are looking for more?

Whatever, the study also shows how users mainly only read the first couple of words of headlines and standfirsts. That reinforces the need to write snappy copy that’s going to engage and excite the reader immediately.

In other findings:-

• Single-sentence paragraphs perform better than others (no surprise there; it’s a technique borrowed from tabloid journalism, where attention is at a similar premium).
• Unlike newspaper readers, site readers do not focus on photographs first; they go for the text.
• Larger images are looked at for longer.
• Photos with faces are looked at more.

Via Hypergene.