FRONT PAGE ENTRY POINTS
(INITIAL ANALYSIS)

Photos and graphics grab the eye first, right? Maybe wrong, for Internet news sites.

Text seems favored over artwork for front-page attention, a preliminary analysis of an eyetracking study appears to show. This conclusion comes from Stanford University and The Poynter Institute, collaborators on the first eyetracking study of Internet news reading on normally scrolling screens. (definition)

We found in our early analysis that more often than not, briefs or captions got the first eye fixations (definition) when the first page (definition) came up. Then the eyes came back to photos or graphics, sometimes after readers had clicked away to a full article before returning to the first page.

Let's show you an example
(click on the titles to see the pages)

1. Initial Screen
In this shot you see what came up first when subject 59 initiated his/her online news session: a fairly dramatic picture of the launch of a cruise missile in the Kosovo war, with a caption underneath; briefs on the war and on local reaction; vertical navigation listings in the left column and horizontally under the masthead; right column with lists of stories and a graphic.

2. Fixation Order
The numbers superimposed over the pink blocks show the order in which fixation clusters (definition) occurred on this first, or front, page (definition). Follow the numbers and note the roaming pattern. Note, too, the dark "x" to the right of photo that indicates a mouse click for calling up a hyperlinked story. Density of color is not significant.

3. Returns to First Page
Although the first fixation cluster does appear to left on the first photo (Fixation Order), contrast this with how the subject really looked at the photo after returning to the First Page. After subject clicked away to an article, then returns to the front page, note the groupings of eye fixations. In the first encounter with the front page (Fixation Orders), the first cluster landed in an area that more likely indicates attention on the left-hand column than the blank area of the photo. On the revisit, the reader's eye searched out the photo early on, then kept returning to it (note the numbering).

Now, to give you a fuller perspective, we'll show you the entire sequencing.
(click on the titles to see the pages)

1. Initial Screen
As outlined previously, in this shot you see what came up first when subject 59 initiated his/her online news session

2. Screen with Boxes Superimposed Over Content
This shows coding boxes superimposed over content, with labels for each box.

3. Boxed Regions Without Content
Here the coding outlines are shown without the background content, for easier viewing.

4. Logical Fixations
The little red squares are individual fixations (definition). These fixations are about 200 milliseconds. To give you a measure of time, it takes about 250 milliseconds from seeing a light go on to pushing a button in response.

5. Fixation Order
This shows the order in which the eyes fixated on the screen, as already described above. Density of color is not significant.

6. Fixations and Flat Right
When fixations line up roughly from left-to-right, reading (definition) is presumed. Note red lines connecting such fixations.

7. Flat Right Coverage Order
The large blocks of red show the order in which text was read on this front page (definition); the headline; the local brief; the caption under the photo; the general war brief.

8. Story Reading Order
We note from the numbers that the full article (datelined Belgrade) to which the reader clicked is read in sequential order. Density of color is not significant.
(It may be necessary to scroll to the right to see the numbers)

9. Returns to Home Page
On returning to the front page, the reader's eye searched out the photo early on, then kept returning to it, as described above. Note, too, that after scanning text for the first time the eye fixates on the graphic at top right column, as well as checking out the left navigation listing more thoroughly now.

Out of our 67 subjects, we picked every fifth to analyze their first pages in the above way. This gave us a random sampling of 14 from our pool. Three pages had no graphics or photos at all. Of the 11 remaining pages, 7 had either a graphic or photo, but these were not looked at until either the text was read or this page received a second visit. In the remaining 4 pages, a graphic was looked at first.

Of this last group, banner ads comprised three of the first-fixations clusters. One page with an initially looked-at banner ad also had a photo. While the banner ad was looked at right away, the photo was ignored until the subject returned to the page after having clicked away.

The remaining "looked-at-first" page contained a golf graphic. The subject looked at that first, then clicked on it to hyperlink to golfing information. An interesting sidelight is that a second subject also called up this page first. He/she, however, totally ignored this same graphic.

At this time, we have not carefully analyzed more front pages, and perhaps doing so will negate the early findings. However, quickly spot checking a few more pages appears to show similar results. Click on the headlines below to view two examples.

1. Brief Page
The reader of this Brief Page ignores the graphics in right column and looks at the briefs sequentially.

2. Washington Post
This subject pays no attention to the key element of the photo before fixating on text.

What to make of these preliminary findings? Perhaps that graphics and photos load more slowly than text. However, our subjects were connected to the Internet at high speeds through university or corporate networks. Or, perhaps that the smaller size of photos and graphics do not grab readers right away in the same way that larger artwork does in print newspapers.

However, overall, during the entire online reading session, graphics and photos did less well than text. Of all graphics, aside from banner ads and photos, available to a subject throughout a session, only 22 percent were looked at. Banner ads, which were broken out separately from other graphics, did somewhat better: 45 percent were looked at. And photos did best: 64 percent were looked at. These figures stack up against briefs and articles text, which were looked at 82 and 92 percent of the time, respectively.

Articles text		92%
Briefs		82
Photos		64
Banner Ads		45
Graphics		22

We should also state that peripheral vision does take in information. Other eyetracking research has shown that some information not fixated on does enter memory, so we cannot guarantee that information was not absorbed outside our delineated areas. This might mean that graphics and photos are absorbed without eye fixations registering.

Nonetheless, whatever the explanation, it appears a provider's first and best chance to engage the reader is through text.

Aside from attention to photos and graphics on the first page, an interesting point we gleaned from examining the top screen (definition) is whether people scroll to continue reading briefs and headlines. They do.

We asked the question, "What's the percentage of briefs and headline boxes read on the top screen versus all that were available on subsequently scrolled screens?"

Out of 1,311 briefs available to our subjects in the top screens, 45 percent had some flat-right (definition), or reading behavior. This compares to a 56 percent ratio of some reading in the 2,951 total briefs available on all screens. A similar 10-point difference exists when we count top-screen headline boxes versus all headline boxes available. These figures, which we find unexpected, imply to us that reading attention continues beyond first screens as readers scroll.