Ever seen one of these?
That's an eye tracking study by The Eyetrack III group. It shows all the points at which a person's eye rested while they were reading a website.
The study shows that the top-left corner of your website is viewed first and most frequently. Then, most people just read headlines, and that people read about five headlines per page regardless of how many headlines there are. You'd better make them count!
Tell me how this thing lays out
Web site layout can be one of the hardest things to talk about when discussing a web design. Everything is based on everything else, you have to take context into account, and decide what elements of a site you're going to feature.
Honestly, it's enough to lay you out!
We're of the opinion that layout, like particle physics and cutting your hair, is best left in the hands of professionals.
If you're not convinced, that's ok. If you want to take a whack at designing your own layout, make sure you keep these 4 thorny concepts in mind:
1: Content Hierarchy
Make sure you pick the correct point sizes for the body copy, header and all subheaders. Establishing a clear hierarchy of content is crucial to getting results from your site.
2: Correct Dimensions
Ever notice how most novels are about the same size? Newspapers, too, all seem to be about the same size. Magazines, picture books, coloring books...they all seem to be about the same dimensions as each other.
Web sites are the same way. For the most part, they all fall within a certain height and width range. It gets tricky when you start trying to place elements within your web site. You've got to figure out which elements are the most important, which ones will lead into which other ones, which ones will be clickable and where those clicks will go, etc. etc. etc... It's brain-tangling work, and without the right knowledge and tools, you'll find yourself with a sloppy, unprofessional, and possibly not even functional layout.
3: "Scannability" (yeah, that's a word)
If someone comes to your web site looking for a specific piece of information, how quickly can they find it? Ultimately, you've got to plan for all different kinds of visitors to your site.
Some will be the kind who just stumbled onto your site, and need you to approach them with some written copy and say "Hi! My name is Dimitri and this is my web site where I sell Chinchilla food. You'll find wet food, dry food, food in a bag, food in a can, even food in a collectors edition glow-in-the-dark margarita glass (salt optional)! If you have any questions, just click 'contact me.'"
(If you know any Dimitris who sell Chincilla food, please apologize to them for me).
But you'll also get those visitors who come to your site knowing exactly what they want to feed their chinchilla. They are not interested in your introduction - they just want to find a bag of Chinchilla Biscuits and move on. You've got to make it easy for these people to scan your site, make a quick purchase and go. It's easy business to get, but only if you've laid things out right.
4: Whitespace
Here's one you've probably heard all about: Strategic use of white space creates rest opportunities for your visitors eyes, along the path you intend for them to follow. And it calls attention to those important items.
To prove it: try looking at a billboard filled with small words. Next, look at one that just says "This Billboard for Rent". Which one stands out?
The bottom line is that it's crucial to provide your visitors with space on your website. You want to lead them gracefully through the elements of your site. You don't want to club them into oblivion with "buy now" button after blinking "buy now" button.
Are you convinced yet? Hopefully by the time your do-it-yourself flowbee haircut grows out, we can sit down for a chat.
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