The Hidden Costs of Homepage Sliders

The Hidden Costs of Homepage Sliders

Homepage sliders, also called carousels or slideshows, are among the most popular website features. Many website themes include them by default. But sliders aren’t right for every website, and they should be used with care. Here are the most common problems....
When a Homepage Slider Does Work

When a Homepage Slider Does Work

After two posts on the problems with sliders, you might think I never use them. Not true. There’s a time, a place, and a situation for everything, and we’ve used sliders often over the years. The key is that they have to be done right. A slider that works....
How Eye-Tracking Research Began

How Eye-Tracking Research Began

How do you make the top of your homepage stand out the right way, and lead visitors to find out more? The blocks of information you need aren’t complicated. The real challenge is arranging them so the page flows naturally for the eye. With modern website tools,...
What Eye Tracking Shows About Reading Online

What Eye Tracking Shows About Reading Online

When researchers moved from newspapers to websites, they expected readers to behave the same way. They didn’t. Headlines before photos. Poynter’s EyeTrack studies of online reading, beginning around 2000, found that many web readers were drawn first to...
The F-Pattern: Make Your First Lines Count

The F-Pattern: Make Your First Lines Count

In 2006, the Nielsen Norman Group recorded the eye movements of 232 people as they looked at thousands of web pages. When the researchers combined the results into heat maps, a clear shape appeared. If you squint at those maps, you can almost make out the letter F....