Location matters, especially for non-salient features-An eye-tracking study on the effects of web object placement on different types of websites

Authors:
Sandra P. Roth;Alexandre N. Tuch;Elisa D. Mekler;Javier A. Bargas-Avila;Klaus Opwis
Affiliations:
University of Basel, Department of Psychology, Center for Cognitive Psychology and Methodology, Switzerland;University of Basel, Department of Psychology, Center for Cognitive Psychology and Methodology, Switzerland;University of Basel, Department of Psychology, Center for Cognitive Psychology and Methodology, Switzerland;University of Basel, Department of Psychology, Center for Cognitive Psychology and Methodology, Switzerland;University of Basel, Department of Psychology, Center for Cognitive Psychology and Methodology, Switzerland
Venue:
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
Year:
2013

Citing 9
Cited 1

Modeling the Shape of the Scene: A Holistic Representation of the Spatial Envelope

International Journal of Computer Vision
Websites that Satisfy Users: A Theoretical Framework for Web User Interface Design and Evaluation

HICSS '99 Proceedings of the Thirty-Second Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences-Volume 2 - Volume 2
Why structure and genre matter for users of digital information: A longitudinal experiment with readers of a web-based newspaper

International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
The effect of violating visual conventions of a website on user performance and disorientation: how bad can it be?

Proceedings of the 26th annual ACM international conference on Design of communication
Intranet satisfaction questionnaire: Development and validationof a questionnaire to measure user satisfaction with the Intranet

Computers in Human Behavior
Mental models for web objects: Where do users expect to find the most frequent objects in online shops, news portals, and company web pages?

Interacting with Computers
Vertical versus dynamic menus on the world wide web: Eye tracking study measuring the influence of menu design and task complexity on user performance and subjective preference

Computers in Human Behavior
On saliency, affect and focused attention

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
The role of visual complexity and prototypicality regarding first impression of websites: Working towards understanding aesthetic judgments

International Journal of Human-Computer Studies

The effects of controlling visual attention to handbags for women in online shops: Evidence from eye movements

Computers in Human Behavior

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Users have clear expectations of where web objects are located on a web page. Studies conducted with manipulated, fictitious websites showed that web objects placed according to user expectations are found faster and remembered more easily. Whether this is also true for existing websites has not yet been examined. The present study investigates the relation between location typicality and efficiency in finding target web objects in online shops, online newspapers, and company web pages. Forty participants attended a within-subject eye-tracking experiment. Typical web object placement led to fewer fixations and participants found target web objects faster. However, some web objects were less sensitive to location typicality, if they were more visually salient and conformed to user expectations in appearance. Placing web objects at expected locations and designing their appearance according to user expectations facilitates orientation, which is beneficial for first impressions and the overall user experience of websites.