People Don’t Read, They Scan

Trends | written by Chris Allison | June 2, 2009 at 8:42 PM

Impatient and insistent upon immediate satisfaction, Web users are quick to either stick around or leave your website. The question is, since they don’t read, “What are they scanning?”

Web users tend to scan your content in an F-shaped pattern. “F” as in Fast.

f_reading_pattern_eyetracking

Jakob Nielson says:

Users first read in a horizontal movement, usually across the upper part of the content area. This initial element forms the F’s top bar.

Next, users move down the page a bit and then read across in a second horizontal movement that typically covers a shorter area than the previous movement. This additional element forms the F’s lower bar.

Finally, users scan the content’s left side in a vertical movement. Sometimes this is a fairly slow and systematic scan that appears as a solid stripe on an eyetracking heatmap. Other times users move faster, creating a spottier heatmap. This last element forms the F’s stem.

This is why it is essential your web development company knows where to place various elements within your website based on your goals. It’s important to have a marketing mind when planning your website and, in my opinion, it is the web development company’s job to decide where these elements shall be located based on the outcome they will have. After all, you want to run your business and not worry about what goes where on your website (assuming you trust your web development company’s experience).