Red mapping indicates longest eye pauses, followed by yellow and blue. Gray indicates little to no time spent on these areas of the layout, such as the generic images that have been placed on this page.

An interesting study has been published by Jakob Nielsen entitled, “Eyetracking Web Usability“.

Using monitor mounted infrared sensors, Nielsen’s research studied eye flow and linger times across various web page layout designs to learn what attracted and kept the viewer’s attention, and what did not.

In his findings, Nielsen covers a range of topics … including discussions on photography, navigation, type usage, color, graphics, animations, ad placement and overall layout of a web page.

For web designers and marketers, Nielsen’s work can be a useful tool in determining how best to design a web page for maximum effectiveness.

To read and see more, as well as download a PDF-formatted chapter from the book, go to: http://www.useit.com/eyetracking/ There is also a link on this page for ordering the published work.