09 October 2011
F-ing web design
13/10/11 14:03 Filed in: David Edwards
As an art director I’ve long suspected it. People just don’t want to read much copy.
Online they feel excused from even pretending to read it. No one has the time or inclination to more than skim read. This is why writing web copy is such a skill: you need to narrow down your content to just the most juicy bits and place them into the areas we know people do run their eyes across.
To my mind good web design is as much about understanding how humans think, get bored and can be re-engaged as it is about making things look nice. You need to work knowing about proven eye tracking patterns - like the F-pattern (along, down a bit, along again behavior). And understand that your page has inherent blind spots and hot spots and that ‘hero’ messages shouldn’t behave like every thing else (you need to mix it up a little). And ultimately, while content is king, you need to accept that the environment the content is in is vital because it appeals subconsciously.
Understanding how people think, the reassurances they need, when they need to see them…this is the framework of good design. And online, getting it right might just keep them away from heading back to the search results long enough for you to get the first two paragraphs read.
F-pattern for starters: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html