How visitors mentally process websites
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How people read websites Web Psychology Written by @sanchitkhera7
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So, how do visitors read websites? Short Answer: They skim through pages, hunting for answers by looking at relevant keywords and phrases. Explanation: I'll go into a little bit of detail about why this theory holds true, while providing graphs, charts, and other statsy stuff in this article. Straight and to the point. Let's start by blasting a few common myths with scientific research to prove them wrong. Common Myths : 1. Users will scroll all the way to the bottom: Chartbeat teamed up with Slate Magazine and uncovered the fact that most users did not reach their article beyond 60% of their articles. "Reach", not "Read". The stats for entertainment websites (stumbledupon, distractify, buzzfeed) are higher due to their lighter content, catchy titles, and engaging images. For the rest of us, 60% seems like a horrible number. Neilsen Norman conducted eye-tracking research in '08 and figured out that users only "read" about 20-30% of the article. Here's what they had to say, "On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely. We've known since our first studies of how users read on the Web that they typically don't read very much.Scanning text is an extremely common behavior for higher-literacy users; our recent eyetracking studies further validate this finding." Is this a new phenomenon? Nope. In 1997, the NN group found that 80% of users scanned new websites, and only 16% of the users read it word-by-word. 2. Users only share your article if they've read it completely: WRONG! I'll point to Slate again and show you their shares vs article depth graph. An excerpt from their article explains this further. "There’s a very weak relationship between scroll depth and sharing. Both at Slate and across the Web, articles that get a lot of tweets don’t necessarily get read very deeply. Articles that get read deeply aren't necessarily generating a lot of tweets." 3. You need to "build-up" the article to keep users interested: This type of logic stems from how people view movies or read books. Most of the time, people associate themselves with the main-lead of the movie or book and hence enjoy the journey of the story till the end. That's not the case for blog-posts or articles. Something like an inverted pyramid or some other empty buzz-word. When users search for a query and click a link on the SERP, they are usually hunting for a specific answer to their question. They will brutally scan through the article (sub-consciously looking at your design and architecture) and focus only on the relevant paragraphs that satisfy their needs.
Transcript of How visitors mentally process websites
How people read websitesWeb Psychology
Written by @sanchitkhera7
So, how do visitors read websites?
Short Answer: They skim through pages, hunting for answers bylooking at relevant keywords and phrases.
I’ll go into a little bit of detail about why this theory holds true,while providing graphs, charts, and other relevant information inthis article - Straight and to the point. Let’s start by visiting a fewcommon UI myths and prove why they may be wrong. Take a lookat the chart below -
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Common Myths :
1. Users will scroll all the way to the bottom: Chartbeat teamed upwith Slate Magazine and uncovered the fact that most users didnot reach their article beyond 60% of some of their articles.“Reach”, not "Read”. The statistics for entertainment websites (stumbledupon,distractify, buzzfeed) are going to be a bit higher due to theirlighter content, catchy titles, and engaging images. For the rest ofus, 60% is not where we'd hoped to be.
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Common Myths :
2. Users only share your article if they’ve read it completely:WRONG! I’ll point to Slate again and show you their shares v/sarticle depth graph below. An excerpt from their research explainsthis further. “There’s a very weak relationship between scrolldepth and sharing. Both at Slate and across the Web, articles thatget a lot of tweets don’t necessarily get read very deeply. Articlesthat get read deeply aren’t necessarily generating a lot of tweets.”
3. You need to “build-up” the article to keep users interested:This type of logic stems from how people watch movies or readbooks. When users search for a query and click a link on theSERP, they are usually hunting for a specific answer to theirquestion. They will brutally scan through the article (sub-consciously looking at your design and architecture) and focusonly on the relevant paragraphs that satisfy their needs.
HOW PEOPLE VIEW WEBSITES3
www.fivemv.com
Example of a user scanning for relevant keywords on an olderwebsite with poor design. (With eye-tracking technology)
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Research suggests that an F-shaped pattern is the most recurringsystem of processing a website and/or its contents for an averagevisitor.
The guys at Webdesign.Tutsplus have graciously shared theirheatmap, which also suggests a similar F-shaped pattern forusers that check out their site.
What we’re seeing here is a systematic processing of the entirearticle/website in a structured but some-what chaotic manner. Youcan clearly see the inherent bias prevalent in most of us thatforces us to ignore the rest of the paragraph if the first fewsentences are not appealing to us. Hence the F-shape.
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F-Shaped Pattern
So what type of design appeals the most to what people?
Well, research suggests that the younger the demographic of theaudience, the more adventurous they are in terms of clicking linkson your page. The following graph comes from NNgroup’susability testing experiments.
Tabbed browsing is something that a lot of young adults would beguilty of. Surprisingly, the level of patience that adults have whileviewing websites is higher compared to teens and younger. Thiscould be attributed to the development of the Pre-Frontal Cortexwhich usually occurs around the age of 25.
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What are the implications? How do I improve my design?
Build a unique and creative website:
How hard could a redesign be? How expensive could it get?What’s the ROI for a redesign? How often do I need to keepchanging the site? Let me answer all of those questions by sayingthis. Do you want to delight your users? If so then keeping up withcurrent trends is crucial. Techcrunch changed their site design,following in the footsteps of Fast Company. Why did these siteschange their design? Because they cared about their users, andthe numbers speak for themselves. Here’s 10 tips on buildingparallax scrolling on your website by CreativeBloq
Quality V/S Quantity:
Depends on your revenue model. Sites that make money off adsprefer to send users elsewhere once they view the content. In thesocial media marketing industry, sites like SEJ and Search EngineWatch don’t focus their efforts on constantly writing high qualityarticles, and act more like reporters in their respective industries.Sites like Social Media Examiner and Moz focus on high qualityarticles because they generate revenue from being serviceproviders, hosting events, and providing technology solutions.Here’s Neil Patel (QuickSprout) on how he increasedTechcrunch’s traffic by 30% in 2 months while focusing onquantity.
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Writing with precision:
Get straight to the point and provide adequate information frommultiple sources to back your claims. Use images, graphs, charts,infographics and videos to illustrate your points and convert usersinto customers more effectively. Users want to see your businesscard first, and then your resume. Give them a little, and they'llcome back for more.
Integrate story-telling in your content:
Don’t let the people decide what your brand is all about. Pick anengaging story that connects with consumers, and build contentthat users can relate to. Steve Jobs did this every time helaunched a new product. He sold a story. A story of making thingsbetter. Let your website content speak about it's unique story.Take a look at Gary Vaynerchuk and Brian Solis. Both highlysuccessful and highly established in the social media space. BothGary and Brian constantly obsesses about building stories andcreating content that connects with its audience.
Additional Resources:
1. UXMyths: They’ve listed an extended list of the top 30+ mythsthat plague the webdesign industry
2. NN Group: They’re an agency that regularly blogs about UXresearch by levering their eye-tracking software
3. BoxesandArrows: They’ve got a good blog as well. Lots ofdetailed stuff about UI-UX
4. CreativeBloq: I can’t stop raving about this site! It’s brilliant.
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