Website Behaviour

Recent History
It may be fair to say that most UK households and businesses now have access to a computer and an Internet connection, coupled with some degree of knowledge of how to search for and navigate websites. Compared to some other widely used media e.g. radio and television, the Web is still the new kid on the block. At this point it’s worth taking into account the relationship between the features of the Web and how people behave when in contact with it, and trying to relate this to other popular media e.g.

• Unlike the ‘passive’ viewing of TV, using the web is generally active, and directed.
• Unlike TV where viewers of a certain channel all view the same programme, each use of and experience of the Web for each person is different, totally controlled by them, and broadly subject to their particular needs and behaviour at the time.
• Although each person’s browsing and searching history per session may be different, we as human beings display a common set of behaviours when using websites.

As the web became more widely used, understood, and more importantly used for business, the need to test, measure, monitor and feedback into web page design improvements became more widespread. Simple hit counters gave way to detailed stats and analytics, sophisticated research on how web pages was carried out e.g. using laser eye tracking, and marketing expertise and knowledge was applied websites.

Current Knowledge and Your Website Visitors
Knowledge and research relating to web page visitor behaviour has highlighted the following things which are likely to apply to your website visitors:

Website visitors don’t read through all of the text and page content and then make an informed decision about which link they need to click on. What people actually do is ‘skim’ and ‘scan’ read, muddle through, and click on the first links that look like they might be relevant to what they’re thinking of and hoping to achieve at the time.

The Implications for Your Web Pages:
No matter how carefully you think about and write your web page text it will not all be read. Some studies have shown that less that 30% of your web page text is likely to be read*, and this percentage may even decrease the more text you add and the longer the page is (especially if your content isn’t particularly relevant or compelling). Make sure that your Web pages are broken up into logical sections with prominent, obvious and clear headings for each, and make use of bold text and bullet points. Make sure that essential links and buttons i.e. those related to conversion are very prominent and are perceived as being in the ‘foreground’ rather than the ‘background’. Make sure it’s obvious what is clickable and what is not.

On arrival your website visitors are likely to have a limited amount of patience, time, and goodwill, and are likely to behave impulsively rather than logically when navigating through your pages. New visitors will have no sense of size and scale of your website, and will have no conventional sense of where they are within the website and where exactly they need to go.

The Implications for Your Web Pages:
You can take steps to maintain the goodwill and patience and hopefully provide a positive experience of your website if you:

• Make pages which essentially answer questions and counter possible objections rather than create questions in the mind of your visitors.
• Don’t make people wait. Give them obvious and fast routes to what they need.
• Don’t hide information, create extra barriers or steps, ask for unnecessary information, or force them to use complicated or incongruous navigation.
• Don’t force your visitors to consciously have to think about and have to be distracted by things they shouldn’t be e.g. the structure and navigation of the website rather than its content.
• Use a navigation system that is clear, consistent throughout, provides good navigation choices and options, and lets people know just where they are at any one point. Use conventions to your advantage e.g. everybody knows that blue and underlined text is a link.

100% of your web page visitors arrive at the top of your pages. Eye Tracking studies have revealed left hand side and top dominant viewing patterns and pages and an ‘F Shaped’ pattern of viewing from the top of the page.*

The Implications for Your Web Pages:
The top left hand area of your pages is likely to be good place to put your most important information, links and navigation. The first 2 paragraphs at the top of your page may be a good place to put important content, and any sub headings, paragraphs and bullet points (particularly in this top left hand area) should start with words which carry and convey the main ‘information’.

Information at the top of your pages (often called ‘above the fold’) id likely to get more attention, but people are used to scrolling, and often you will need to include plenty of content on your web pages, which will naturally produce scrolling.

The Implications for Your Web Pages:
Placing your important information and links to your main conversion routes at the top of the page is a good kind of insurance that they will get more attention and hopefully clicks. There is an argument that people don’t like / don’t want to scroll dates back to a time on the Web when most people were actually more unfamiliar with scrolling***. Also, many modern websites accept the necessity of scrolling and use a ‘cut-off’ layout to try and inform web page viewers that they need to scroll

i.e. the top part of the next (below the fold) section is partly visible ‘above the fold’. Where exactly ‘above the fold’ is on different monitors with different display settings also going to cause variations. It is likely however that providing plenty of high value information on your pages is going to appeal to your human visitors and search engine page quality algorithms, and scrolling is obviously therefore essential and acceptable.

One well known study** has shown that if you include photos of people who are looking straight at you out of the page, your web page visitors are likely to look straight back at the face / eyes, and be distracted from the rest of the web page content. If however the person in the picture is looking in another specific direction, the web page visitor’s eyes will follow their eyes and look in the same direction.

Implication for Your Web Pages:
If using photos of a human face on your pages, consider using photos where the person is looking in the direction of the important text content on your web page.

Human Perceptual Organising Tendencies
The more relevant perceptual organising tendencies that we all use include ‘grouping’ and the ability to perceive ‘foreground and background’. Where grouping is concerned, our perception groups together into one perceived block things whish appear to belong together and be in close proximity.

Implications for Your Web Pages:
The implication is that important sections in your pages should be clearly marked out and appear as visually separate / in a clearly marked area or section. Photos, other content, and particularly the links and buttons associated with certain text content should be nearby e.g. the ‘add to basket’ button being next to the product information.

When it comes to perceiving foreground and background, your important content and links, and the links to your main conversion routes should stand out to your visitors who are ‘scanning’ and ‘skimming’ your pages, and these important elements should therefore be perceived as being very much in the foreground. In fact visually and psychologically, the structure of your website should be taking a ‘back seat’ as your web page visitors are encouraged to get the ‘big picture’ and be able to reach their (and your conversion) goals as easily as possible.

*Study by Jacob Nielsen 2006.
**Usableword.com James Breeze
***Clicktale 2006