This week I sat in on a webinar that outlined the latest eye-tracking data for the Web. I was interested in these five findings:

1. The F Pattern. Studies show that we read horizontally first, then track down the page, forming an “F” pattern. Also, time records of online viewing show that most people *scan* web pages—they don’t read them.
2. The Golden Triangle. When looking at search results, readers spend a lot of time in the top left corner of the screen. A Yahoo study found that putting thumbnail photos or videos next to search results improved click-through rates, and Google found that thumbnail images in search results help users more quickly decide whether the result will be useful. A picture really does say a thousand words…
3. Banner Blindness. Nielsen Norman Group (a usability consultancy founded by Jakob Nielsen, the guru of Web page usability) found through heat maps that users ignore Web ads. Plain text on a Web page gets read in the golden triangle and face photos draw eyeballs, but ads are completely ignored.
4. Talking Heads Bore. Studies show that online video of a talking person loses the user’s attention—users start looking at things in the background of the person in the video, or anywhere else except the person talking. The lesson? If you’re going to shoot video of a person talking, keep it really short (less than one minute) or use a photo instead. Sometimes video isn’t the right medium for your content. The most successful use of video on the Web, according to eye-tracking studies, is when you need to explain a concept or demonstrate some type of process or product.
5. Email Introductions Ignored. In e-newsletters, the studies found that most users ignore the introductory text. Sixty percent of users look at just the first two words and then skip down the page.

If you’re interested in reading more, check out these sites:

• http://usability.gov/pdfs/guidelines_book.pdf
• http://useit.com/eyetracking
• http://www.useit.com/eyetracking/methodology

I was going to unsubscribe, but they offered this handy option to “receive fewer emails” instead. Brilliant, I thought. I do still want to know about sales, but once a week or so would be plenty (I don’t even shop at J.Crew once a month). So I adjusted my newsletter subscription, or so I thought, and went on my way.

Fast-forward a few months and dozens more absent-minded email deletions. Today is Wednesday and I just received my third email from J.Crew this week. Monday was about new arrivals, yesterday was another “free shipping for purchases of $195 or more” (they send these every week), and today it was a message about their fall sale (false advertising, in my view—the sale applies only if you open a J.Crew credit card). So that means that someone on the J.Crew marketing team considers three emails in three days “fewer emails.” Seriously?

This afternoon I clicked on the unsubscribe link again and took myself off the list entirely. I was prepared to vent about the reason, if they asked me, but they didn’t. They only gave me the following generic line: “You have been unsubscribed from all the J.Crew emails.”

Not asking me the reason was just another email marketing mistake from this company. —Julie Jares, managing editor

Business intelligence is interesting stuff. It helps people do their jobs more efficiently, saves companies money and resources, and facilitates creative solutions. And the Business Objects site does a decent job of communicating that. Mostly.

BRAVO

It’s clear that someone at Business Objects really tried to think about how users would access and use information on the site. The perfect example is the “Starting Points” section on the home page. It asks users to self-select by size/role: enterprise, small & midsize, partners, and developers. When users choose a role, the site provides tailored information for them. Yes, we know it’s not unique, and though we would like to see it highlighted a little better visually, something about the idea of a “starting point” seems, well, smart.

There are also plenty of other smart features to be found throughout the site. One of our favorites is Search the Knowledge Base. It aggregates resources in one place and allows users to search for and download them in a variety of formats: forums, FAQs, documents, etc.

Finally, the standout feature of the site is the Diamond technical community. Not only does it feature community basics such as subcommunities on specific applications/platforms, technical resources, blogs, e-books, and sample code, there is also a helpful Getting Started page and clear guidelines for submissions and contributions. And, unlike the main Business Objects site, Diamond community pages feature a clean, easy-to-read layout.

TRY AGAIN

Overall the site is visually attractive, with clear navigation and good UI. But we can’t emphasize it enough: Light blue type is difficult to read on both black and white backgrounds. It doesn’t matter how good you think it looks, or how it conforms to your brand identity; if users can’t read it, they won’t come back to your site.

Also, one navigational quirk stuck out like a sore thumb: A page labeled “Overview” can be found below each site section. Clicking on “Overview,” however, and clicking on the section name serve up the exact same page.

Overall, the language is too stilted and jargony. I call this kind of content “chicken feed copy” because it feels like someone had a good idea and the marketing department picked it apart (like a flock of chickens) in order to include boilerplate features and benefits messaging. Stop picking and give the site a personality.

Which is a nice segue to the newsletters. Business Objects has two: Spotlight on CIO and Spotlight on CFO. Both newsletters have strong contributions from—and may be created wholesale by—Gartner Research. It always strikes us as odd that companies want to establish personality and independent thought leadership and then rely on analyst firms to provide that viewpoint.