How Do People Read Websites?
Submitted by Brian Bearden, Zephyr Salvo Studios
713-481-3321 / 832-594-5390 / www.zSalvo.com / brian@zsalvo.com
Some interesting facts to consider when designing your new website:
Large to Small - Large items catch their attention first, so instead of having everything the same size, how about making a news area on the home page a larger size.
Irregular to Regular - Irregular shaped items catch the visitor’s eye first. Why not have something on the home page or interior pages that is not the typical square box.
Dark to Light - Darker items catch people eye first.
Saturated to Less Saturated - Saturated items catch people’s eye fist than less saturated.
Images and Color - Users see images and color first then they see text.
Text - Never center text on a page. This is not how people read text on a website. They scan text to so having centered text is hard to read.
Visual Path - Create a clear visual path for visitors to your site to follow.
Dividing Information into Meaningful Chunks - Why is it easy for us to remember our phone number? A phone number is actually 3 different small groups. 713-481-3321 is easier to remember than 7134813321. Think about breaking up your information into 5 – 9 meaningful chunks of information.
Lines are good visual separators - If you are listing a number of products for sale, put lines in between each product so people will know that the information contained above the line is for that specific product.
Denote what is clickable and what is not - Remain consistent with this. If you use light blue for everything that is clickable, only us light blue for clickable links throughout your site. If you underline clickable text than use underlining throughout the site.
If you want me to review the usability of your current website, please listen on Tuesday’s at 3pm and call the show at call 713-783-8365 or email me at brian@zsalvo.com. I will be glad to help you.
About Our Show Expert: Brian Bearden is a Director and website redesign guy of Zephyr Salvo Studios. He has a true passion for the web and is glad to share is advice for making your website the best it can be. Visit www.zsalvo.com or www.upstreammarketing.net to see a sample of his design portfolio or call 832-594-5390 to schedule your free website consultation.
