Eye-tracking studies reveal design secrets
I stumbled onto a fascinating list of design tips based on eye-tracking studies.
The studies referred to here focus on Web sites. But there are lessons to be learned for advertising design. Here are few takeaways:
- Text is more important than images. People are looking for information.
- You have to design with people’s expectations in mind. Money-making ads aren’t the place to experiment.
- People tend to ignore ads that are obviously ads. The radar goes up. Flying “under the radar”gives an ad a chance to be noticed.
- Simple formats work better than complex formats. Complexity get in the way of clear communication.
- Clear, relevant photos work better than artsy fartsy photos. Real people relate to real people better than pretty faces and visual “concepts.”
- Headlines draw the eye. They are the engine of your copy train. Yeah, I know … duh. But many copywriters and designers don’t get this simple idea.
- Lists hold people’s attention. People love lists. Like this one. They provide lots of information fast.
- Short paragraphs perform better than big blocks of text. Most people aren’t strong readers. They want reading to be easy, not hard.
I think every designer should be a student of reading and legibility theory. In case you’re interested, here’s some additional info on reading, legibility, and ad design.
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5 Responses to “Eye-tracking studies reveal design secrets”
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Direct but very useful information. Thank you.
You said “Complexity gets in the way of clear communication.” The evidence is clear that your point stands up in testing.
I have used the official looking, ugly, staccato style snap pac in direct mail to beat long-standing controls in fundraising, membership, insurance and lead generation over the years. The pointed, no-frills copy and official look that lays out the facts convincingly works when nothing else will.
Nice summary that direct response copywriters should paste on their wall.
I say ugly works, but how well it works continues to surprise me. I beat a client’s lead gen mailer by a factor of 7x. Then while testing some additional ideas, I created a butt ugly mailer that was just black type on cheap white paper. That beat my previous winner by a factor of 2x and lowered cost as well.
But I wonder … if everyone did ugly, would a pretty piece work better because it stood out?
[...] mis een link naar de onderzoeken waar ze de lijst op baseren, maar het is interessant materiaal! (via) This entry was written by Guy, posted on 24 december 2007 at 23:28, filed under Design, Site. [...]
Thanks for posting these details. Seems I have better recommendations to make to web site designers and a few things to work on myself.