Them eyes don't lie

What do readers look at when they look when they look at a news site? This presentation by Nora Paul, director of the Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota; and Laura Ruel, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, covered the latest findings of their ongoing eye-tracking studies. It provided some good insights that we need to keep in mind in our redesign efforts.

Some lessons:
- Tight images of faces draw eyeballs.

- With slideshows, having the forward/backward command above the image works best, then left. The least effective is having the thumbs on the right.

- With carousels, people think the first story they see is the top story on the site, even if it's just one of several rotating through randomly.

- They tested pages with 22, 44 and 58 links on the homepage. People actually spent more time on the page with the fewest links, though they viewed more stories on the page with more links. The middle number seemed to be optimum. (Not our 450+.)

- List of top headlines was almost the most viewed. They want us to tell them what's most important.

- Which got more clicks, a headline, a headline and a photo? Surprise: the one with just the headline.

- Big blurbs discourage exploration. They give people enough on the homepage and they don't venture in for more. (Another flaw of our current page.)

- When the image on the page is larger, people tend to look at headlines more.

- Fewer images on the homepage actually resulted in the greatest user satisfaction.

- Evidence supports the theory that a story page is just as or perhaps even more important than the homepage, as that is the front door for many visitors.

- Seattle Times has copyeditors write two headlines for each story, one for web, maxed out for search; the other for the paper.

- Slideshows with both a timer and chapter tags were most viewed, hence most effective.

- Users spend more time on a site they view to be more interactive. More opportunities for feedback result in more engagement.

- The eyeball tracking clearly, and painfully, showed: Users read right around display ads even if they are embedded in the type. They studiously avoid it, skirting around it, even though they noticed news graphics.

- Text works better than display boxes. People notice things more when they don't look like ads but editorial.

- People don't waste much time looking at mastheads, though they do tend to notice banner ads.

- Top-of-page navigation clearly works best, better than side-nav menus.

As promised, here's one of the videos. (Thanks, Nora.) This one shows how people someone skirting right around an ad embedded in the story but then diving into a graphic in the same position.