Human beings are built with a cool feature. Our eyes are positioned at the front of our heads. We don't need whiskers, big ears, or a heightened sense of smell to tell us that a car is coming down the road at 50 miles an hour. We look through our frontal eye sockets and we understand the whole picture before us. We move out of the way because we have forward and peripheral vision. We see the danger as well as the path out of it, all in one glance.
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"You need to know where to put your ads vs your content in relation to the geography of your page. The term is LAYOUT and it means a lot more than placing elements on a webpage because it looks nifty." |
Surfers are human beings. They too have this amazing forward/peripheral vision just like website designers. They use their eyes the same way as every other human. Studies state the majority of surfers look at certain parts of a webpage almost instinctively. If you plan to create an adult page that sells, then it's imperative you understand how a surfer visually searches your site.
Granted, you're going to get the occasional surfer that is vision impaired. To please this share of the market, you'll need to research site accessibility issues. Overall, the bulk of porn surfers are enjoying our content optically. It's not enough to offer great product. It's not enough to write killer sales copy. It's not enough to display snappy graphics. You also need to know where to put your ads vs your content in relation to the geography of your page. The term is LAYOUT and it means a lot more than placing elements on a webpage because it looks nifty.
As mentioned in paragraph two, human eyes follow a predictable pattern when they are looking at a web site. The Poynter Institute has spent the last few years performing such studies. The call it Eye-Tracking. Poynter takes about fifty people, has them all look at various web sites, and records the participant's eye movements in a controlled environment. Here are some findings from Poynter's most recent study: Eyetrack III (http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004).
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FIRST PLACE
Common knowledge dictates that the top of a webpage is the strongest focal point to the surfer. However, the Eyetrack study shows us that the TOP LEFT is the point where user's eyes invariably fall first. Not the TOP CENTER. Not the TOP RIGHT. Time after time, the surfer looks at the TOP LEFT of the page first. What's more, users spend a good bit of time examining the TOP LEFT of a webpage. Poynter indicates this area is the best place to put site titles, menus and important headlines.
SECOND PLACE
The next place the eye travels after scanning the top left is BELOW TOP RIGHT. Just BELOW TOP RIGHT, to be specific.
THIRD PLACE
You would think the surfer's eyes would be ready for the center of the page by now. You would be wrong. The Poynter study indicates that surfer's eyes travel back to the left again. The LOWER MIDDLE LEFT.
FOURTH PLACE
Finally, some love for the CENTER of the page! The eyes venture gradually, to the right, up to the top and down the CENTER. Then it's to the left and then the right and back up to the top right.
When laying out a web page, the adult webmaster must always look at the work through the eye of the surfer. Your layout is a trail that is supposed to lead the surfer to your cheese. Another important detail from the Poynter Eyetrack study is the major amount of time the surfer spends ABOVE THE FOLD.
The term ABOVE THE FOLD comes from newspaper publishing. It refers to all the headlines; stories and content located on the top half of a newspaper when folded in half. This area is considered prime print real estate. On the web, ABOVE THE FOLD refers to the portion of your webpage that is visible in a browser window, before the surfer scrolls down. Of course, you can add elements BELOW THE FOLD. Just keep in mind that the surfer is going to take a while to get there. If your brilliant sales copy is below the fold, it might never be read.
Human eyes see what is in front of them. They have just enough peripheral vision to judge your entire page within a matter of seconds. If things don't look right or are laid out wrong, your efforts are wasted. Read the Poynter Eyetrack III. Examine the charts and try to apply the findings into your layout. Make the eye of the surfer work for you!