Props Blog dot Com

Webpage design is critical to effectively capturing your reader’s attention and keeping them on your page.  If a reader arrive and nothing catches their eye, they are likely to bounce right away.  When there is too much going on, a reader might not know where to start, get frustrated, and leave too.  Finally, if the reader’s attention is drawn to unimportant parts of your page, they won’t end up reading the information you think is important.

Use Feng Shui for Graphic User Interface Eye Tracking

One of the best ways to increase the impact your site has on a new visitor is to optimize the design of your site so their eyes are attracted to the important things.  You might remember one of the 10 Guidelines to Making Your Site User Friendly was to pay attention to where faces in pictures point.  That is a perfect example of how heatmapping can improve your design and user experience.

One amazing (free) tool I’ve found for heatmapping is Feng-GUI.  Feng-GUI allows you to upload a jpg or png of your site (or anything else for that matter), and it will return a computer simulated prediction of where the human eye will travel during the first 5 seconds of viewing.

The programmers have gone to great lengths to take into consideration 9 important factors which attract attention (Basically: color, weight, size, and shape).  You can see examples of how each plays a role in capturing you’re eyes attention on their FAQ page.

You can only use Feng-GUI for free once every 5 hours, so make sure make the most of your time.

Use Eye Tracking Heatmaps to Attract Your Readers’ Attention to Key Elements on Your Page

Now that you have a way to track your readers’ eyes, and you know the 9 things that attract attention, you can use those things to optimize what people look at.

The first step in optimizing is deciding what you want your readers to do while they are on your site.  Some things your might want your readers to do include:

• * Read one article
• * Read a targeted articles
• * Read as many articles as possible
• * Subscribe to your RSS and/or Newsletter
• * Follow your Twitter
• * Click on Ads
• * Buy affiliate products
• * Bookmark your page
• * Share your page using social media (Digg, Stumble, etc…)
• * Daniel Scocco’s eBook Make Money Blogging goes over more things you might want your reader to do.

If you try to get your reader to do all of these things, they will feel overwhelmed and leave.  Instead, pick out the top 3 or 4 things you want your visitors to do.

Once you’ve picked what you want your reader to do, just use a couple of the 9 attention attracting methods to draw their eyes where you want them.

It sounds easy, but  there is a lot of work involve.  For some well established sites, tweaking a few colors and shapes might be quick and simple while others might find it easier to start from scratch.  Either way, the changes will be worth it.

Remember, you only have one chance to make a first impression.  Use eye tracking heatmaps to make the most of your first impression.

P.S.  My page is currently very poorly optimized right now.  Now that I have a heatmapping tool, you’ll notice some subtle (and no so subtle) changes.

Related posts:

1. SEO and Design Tips You Never Knew About
2. Two Quick Visual Branding Tools You Should Already Be Using
3. Daniel Scocco – Free eBook about Making Money Blogging
4. Props to Wordpress
5. One Simple Way to Protect and Build Your Brand Name Online