Do Eyes Travel In A "Z" Pattern Or A "F" Pattern On Web Sites?

Last week, I blogged about some evidence that the eyes travel in a Z-shaped pattern on web sites. But today, that theory could be debunked!

Jakob Nielsen's Alert Box, a fantastic site that studies online patterns, studied how 232 users' eyes looked across thousands of web pages. Overall, he discovered that readers tend to study the pages in an F-shape pattern.



" * 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."

Based on this information, people who write for web sites (journalists, marketers, bloggers, etc.) should differentiate their writing from typical print writing.

* The first two paragraphs MUST have all the most important information. This is the same with newspaper writing, but even more pertinent for web.
* Start paragraphs, subheads, and bullet points with information-carrying words. Readers are more likely to read the first two words of a line than anything else.
* Use bullet points to break up information pieces.