Starting a new website

Attracting website visitors

Improving conversion rates

Measuring and Testing

Understanding the visitor eye-path

What is the eye-path and why is it important?

When visitors view your page, they do not start in the top left hand corner and work their way down in a logical order, most visitors scan a page quickly to see if it is going to be relevant to them.

When people scan, their eye darts about the page, taking in information sub-consciously. They will form an impression without really understanding why. If you are not aware of this, then the message you think your page is displaying may not be the one your visitors are taking in.

Experiment - Checking the eye path

This is a useful experiment to find out what elements the visitor is first noticing when they arrive on your page. It will give you a clue as to the type of information they may be taking in. For this experiment, you will need:

• participants, preferably clients or potential clients, though if you cannot manage this, try to ask people who will be about as internet savvy as your clients.
• a computer with an open browser displaying the page you want to test. Start with the page minimised.
• a note pad and pen

What to do:

1. Ask the participant to sit in front of the computer and inform them that you are about to open the browser to show them a web page.
2. Maximise the browser and ask them to point out which elements they notice first, ask them to quickly continue scrolling down the page pointing out the elements as they notice them.
3. Minimise the browser.
4. Now ask them what they thought the purpose of the page was.

Understanding the results

Firstly, did most people have roughly the same eye-path through the page? If the eye-path seems almost random, you either have too many competing elements or nothing clearly stands out.

Try to look at your page objectively and work out see if everything blends into one big page, or whether you have lots going on. Try to chunk elements together using borders, background-colours and positioning on the page to make your page easier to scan. Use headings, subheadings, bullet points and bold to break up your text and make it easier to read.

Secondly, did people get the right message from your page? If not, look again at the eye-path they are taking. Are you using generic images? Are you headings clearly laying setting out your message? Website copy should follow newspapers, with a clear headline, and the most important information in the first paragraph. Think about the words you are using and emphasise key phrases.

Summary

This quick experiment should help to give you an idea as to how your visitors follow your page and what impression they are left with. Using this can help you clear up your page, highlighting the key areas and helping to improve the conversion.

If you have any questions left, please click here to complete the ask a question form and we will publish the answer on our website.

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