Jakob and the F shape

Matt Weston, 19 Apr

Jakob Nielsen does some research with eyetracking and heatmaps to show that, yes, people do read websites in a kind of F shape pattern (two horizontal sweeps followed by a single vertical sweep).

For some reason, the F shape got me to thinking about the relationship between web design and bricks and mortar (b&m) retail design. Q: What can web designers teach store designers? (In the early days of the web, that question was reversed). A: Probably a lot. Because most things people do on the web are trackable, there’s a whole lot of averaged out data and rules of thumbs into how people browse and how people buy. Unless you’ve read some Paco Underhill (anyone?), you probably won’t know the same for b&m retail. But b&m retailers get to watch the way individuals (don’t) browse and (don’t) buy in their stores. How about a show of hands? How many web retailers have ever watched real-life people try to browse and buy from their website (like a shopkeeper does every day)?

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Andy Bell says:
One thing I learned from “Why we buy” is that shoppers need a landing strip. On entering a shop, they are likely to be walking at street pace, too fast to pick anything up. The landing strip is designed to slow people down, to get them walking at shop pace. Often lots of items will be on open display. Mirrors work best of all to slow people down (what vanity!). I think something similar happens with a website. People won’t read a big chunk of text on a homepage. Users need to be slowed down. Lots of small bits of information stop them scanning and, hopefully, get them reading on internal pages.
by Andy Bell on 28 Apr