Website designers need to get key messages accros to their audience and entice users to explore a site. Research suggests there are five strategies that designers can apply to direct user attention.
In their study ‘Getting the Message Across: Visual Attention, Aesthetic Design and What Users Remembers’ researchers A. Sutcliffe and A. Namoune from the University of Manchester investigate the relation between user attention and design quality. The goal of their study was to provide design guidelines for directing user attention.
They conclude that designers can apply the following strategies to direct user attention:
- Use animation in a sequence to attract attention. Upsides: users’ attentions will be drawn to the animated areas. Downsides: the animated sequence can mean static areas are neglected. Concurrent, competing animations divert attention and are disliked.
- Centre embedded images, especially showing people, to attract attention. Upsides: users’ attention will be drawn to the image. Downsides: other areas may be neglected.
- Columnar structure for framing attention. Upsides: column structure distributes user attention more evenly and promotes scanning. Downsides: the design may be perceived as less interesting and aesthetic.
- Reduce clutter in column layouts. Upsides: uncluttered or simpler layout reduce competing stimuli for user attention and promote a more aesthetic impression. Downsides: fewer items can be displayed per unit area.
- Place important items on upper part of the page. Upsides: items in top half of a page will receive more attention. Downsides: placing many important items in upper area increases clutter.
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