July 06, 2010Write comment

How people look at elements on a web page

When it comes to web design, the most important thing you should know is how people tend to look at a web page. For example, English speaking people (well, western culture to generalize) tend to read from left to right and therefore the main point of attraction for them would be in the upper left corner. Web designers use this knowledge for enhancing the website aspect.

Besides the well known top left corner, there are other things that attract people’s eyes on a web page. These things are the colors, the pictures or videos or the headings.

You should use these web design techniques to draw attention at some important part of your website, or to guide your visitors to items you want them to see as these items are the most interesting ones. There a few researches done in the field of web design and the results show that people tend to look at web pages in the places they expect information instead of ads.

From such studies it is shown that people usually look at the upper left corner, than scan through headings and only after that they actually read the content of a web page. They also scan the images and the videos before they actually read the text.

Also, people usually prefer text ads instead of banner ads. This is very important if you want to advertise your website as you should choose PPC advertising instead of the classic one with banners.

Another thing people are attracted is images of the human face. Therefore you should try that if your website is in a related category. The navigation bar is also important. It should be usually put in the upper left corner as people should find it easily. If your visitors will find the website complicated, chances are they will reject it.

However, if you website is easy to navigate but it is different from others, it will be seen as original. For example you can put the navigation bar in the top right corner. The visitors will look for it and they will see other information put on your website in the upper left side. One good idea for this would be putting the logo there in order for your customers to remember it.

In conclusion, using these web design techniques will improve the traffic and the results of your website in terms of usability. By knowing them you will have an edge on everybody who doesn’t know anything about web design, and people will see your website as original or extremely functional.

See also

• Ten CSS tips designers should know or learn