Content Quake

Do you ever wonder, as a blogger, what might be the most important part of your post? What is the spot that either makes your reader continue to read, or click away? Well, some recent studies show that most people that read web content do so in an F-Shaped pattern.

Recently, the Nielsen Norman Group studied hundreds of people and their web reading using eye tracking sensors. The dominant reading behaviour amongst those studied was in a shape that looks kinda like an F. While some readers read in a shape that looks a little more like an E, or even a upside down L, the majority fell into the F category. Some very interesting research, especially for advertisers and blogger. Here is a quote from the study discussing the three components that were observed.

• Users first read in a horizontal movement, usually across the upper part of the content area. This initial element forms the F’s top bar.
• Next, users move down the page a bit and then read across in a second horizontal movement that typically covers a shorter area than the previous movement. This additional element forms the F’s lower bar.
• Finally, users scan the content’s left side in a vertical movement. Sometimes this is a fairly slow and systematic scan that appears as a solid stripe on an eyetracking heatmap. Other times users move faster, creating a spottier heatmap. This last element forms the F’s stem.

You can see in our image above what a typical eye pattern looks like using a sensor to track reading. Tons more information is available from the study here, and here.