Web users judge sites in the blink of an eye

[pcdoc]

These days, enlightened web users want to see a "puritan" approach, Caudron adds. It's about getting information across in the quickest, simplest way possible. For this reason, many commercial websites now follow a fairly regular set of rules. For example, westerners tend to look at the top-left corner of a page first, so that's where the company logo should go. And most users also expect to see a search function in the top right.

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/0601...060109-13.html

[AaronSOLD]

There are companies that will do an analysis of user patterns by having subjects observed while browsing your site to see where their eyes and mouse move and where they stuck on your page to determine how to improve usability... which would also in theory improve conversion. Anyone tried this?

[Wheatworks]

These days, enlightened web users want to see a "puritan" approach, Caudron adds. It's about getting information across in the quickest, simplest way possible. For this reason, many commercial websites now follow a fairly regular set of rules. For example, westerners tend to look at the top-left corner of a page first, so that's where the company logo should go. And most users also expect to see a search function in the top right.

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/0601...060109-13.html

Good information to know, but I doubt anyone can get a web page to load in a "20th of a second"! And web pages rarely load at once. They arrive piece by piece ... header, text, graphics, applets, etc.

I do like the "puritan" approach, though.

[frobn]

... westerners tend to look at the top-left corner of a page first, so that's where the company logo should go. And most users also expect to see a search function in the top right.

This would be of benefit to well known companies but a lesser known company may want to use the left cornor for something more interesting to users.