People like pictures. People like graphs. Most people don’t like reading.
Each day, people in the US spend 4 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines.
–Veronis, Suhler & Associates investment bankers http://www.veronissuhler.com
For my entry to the SEOmoz landing page competition I tried to offer information without asking the visitor to read. I used a list. A picture takes far less attention to communicate than words. On October 2nd Grok Dot Com published a post about faces and eye tracking. I as you read through look a the pictures of the woman with red hair, they are out of sync. Your natural path based on the two columns will lead you to understand the results incorrectly. Look at the heat map here and then visit Grok Dot Com, they matched the heat map incorrectly with the original images.
Our eyes are drawn to negative space:
Our eyes are drawn to eyes:
Picture of faces have a particularly strong effect on visitors. We follow not only the direction of the face but the direction of the eyes.Eyes in contribute most to the effect, overpowering the orientation of the head in controlling attention on a page. Some studies even suggest that people are more likely to be honest when they see eyes looking at them.Pictures accompanying testimonials make them more credible. Often sales letters employ this effect by having a picture of the “Author” — I used a picture of Will Crichtlow. Images bring a number of positives when used correctly:
- Communicate quickly
- Inspire trust
- Imply professionalism
- Control scan pattern
Smart use of images can save your visitors time and energy.
The less perceived commitment your visitor has to make the more likely they will take action.
Tags: conversion · SEO1 Comment
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Eye opener! Solid logic