Do Web surfers ignore graphics?

A fascinating recent survey by Stanford University and the Poynter Institute (http://poynter.org/eyetrack2000/index-mail.htm), of online news readers, is worth analysing more closely.

The study, which used small cameras to track the way online readers eyes scan websites, found that surfers generally focus first on text, ignoring photos and graphics, only returning to them, if at all, after reading the text. In general, users were first drawn to headlines, article summaries, and captions. They often did not look at the images at all until the second or third visit to a page. Magazine and newspaper readers, by contrast, check out photos and graphics first, then get on with reading.

Users in the Poynter study frequently alternated between multiple sites. That is, subjects often moved back and forth between sites rather than read them serially. The study also found that once a Web user found an article they wanted they read a lot more of it (75%) compared to 30% in the print media (from Wired.com).

There are at least two major points to take from this survey.

Firstly headlines, summaries and captions are absolutely critical in gaining the interest of someone browsing the Web. Therefore:

-- Headlines should provide a good indication of what is to come; graphical design should take second place to writing the content for the Internet

-- When visitors are at your Website they are not idly passing the time of day they are ruthlessly looking for information, so dont put barriers in front of them

-- You cant necessarily cut and paste articles straight from offline media to the online world - its a different media

Secondly according to usability guru Jakob Nielsen Website design must accommodate people who leave and return frequently by:

-- Plain and simple headlines that immediately tell users what each page and section is about

-- Scripting simple page titles that start with a salient keyword to help users pick out pages from the minimized tiles in the Windows task bar

-- Not changing the standard link colours - doing so makes it harder to recognize what pages the user has already seen

-- Using standard terminology to minimize the need for users to switch context and remember what you call things.

Perhaps the most interesting facet of this survey is to wonder why Web surfers take so little notice of graphics. Maybe they are so used to images taking so long to load that they have learnt to go straight to the text because it appears quicker?

Or maybe it is because content is and always will be the reason why people use the Net?

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