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June 11, 2006
Eye Tracking Visualizations
These visualizations show the dominant pattern of how people perceive content on the web.
In a study on how to enhance the user experience on the web, made by Nielsen Norman Group, an interesting pattern was discovered.
In the shape of a letter "F", viewers scan through any website within a few seconds. Users first read horizontally, usually across the upper part of the page. This initial element forms the "F's" top stroke. Next, users move down the page a bit and read across again, typically covering a shorter distance than the previous. This element forms the F's lower stroke. Lastly, users track the contents left side vertically.
The study was made from several different sites with a variety of designs and the results were shown to be consistent throughout with some exceptions of users reading across a third and fourth time.
It's interesting to think how the web has changed our ways of perceiving information about absolutely everything. For the most part we don't want to spend more then a few seconds looking for something. Our attention span has dramatically lessened because of that. Don't you hate that slow connection at work?
Lets say "F" is for fast - think about the important implications that has.
-Users won't read your text thoroughly. Exhaustive reading is rare.
-The first two paragraphs must state the most important information. There's some hope that users will actually read this material
-Start subheaders, paragraphs, and bullet points with information-carrying words. Users will notice when scanning down the left side of your page in the final stem of their F-behavior. They'll read the third word on a line much less often than the first two.
Posted by diverseawareness at 10:03 PM | Permalink
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June 1, 2006
North Pole Tropics
Upon further research, scientists have discovered the North Pole was a Miami-like 74ยบ F in the summer time . . . 55 million years ago.
The Earth went thru a period of hyper carbonization. No one's really sure why, but the fact of the matter is the Earth was HOT. Sea levels were at their all time high and our atmosphere was flooded with enough greenhouse gases to spur on the rise of huge and I do mean HUGE forests.
For scientists, it's a pretty big discovery since it gives us a glimpse of what Earth would be like if global warming persists. Our planet has an amazing balancing system in place that with or without us, will recover.
The more greenhouse gases we put in the air, the hotter the Earth gets, melting all polar ice caps, reshaping coastlines, eventually nearly wiping us out, to replace us with huge forests, to suck up all the nasty carbons we created, to regulate and reverse the effects, eventually cooling the planet down, which causes the forests to recede, to start all over again with new life.
Will we still be here when the slate has been wiped clean? Come back to this post in 55 million years to find out.
Posted by tranism at 11:10 AM | Permalink
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