Read Eye-tracking points the way from USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review.
Some people think that Jakob Nielsen is a crank, but the man has sound advice about making websites easy to use. He studies how real people use websites. He closely observes what people actually do, not what they say. He doesn’t care how the site looks. He studies behavior.
And while Neilsen focuses on websites, his research can be applied to lots of design. How do people ‘use’ an ad, brochure or portfolio? How can designers get their attention and get the message across?
So read the article. There are surprises! For one thing, eye-tracking shows that men stare at crotches of just about anything – women, men, animals, trucks, sandwiches, etc.
