Eye tracking study: how internet users read web pages in 2020

The Nielsen Norman group has just published the 2nd edition of its report on how users read online. If Internet users always scan a page without following a linear movement, the study brings new elements on the way in which the eye traverses a page of SERP and how it has adapted according to the evolution of design on the web .

More than 13 years after the previous edition, the Nielsen Norman group publishes the new results of its report devoted to the behavior of Internet users when facing a web page. It is based on a series of studies carried out over the past 13 years on more than 500 participants in the United States, but also in China, taking into account more than 750 hours of eye tracking.

Internet users continue to scan a web page rather than reading it

As already noted in 1997, the study confirms that Internet users do not read all of the content online. It is a phenomenon that has persisted for 23 years. They tend to scan a page rather than reading it linearly. Their objective: to find the most relevant information in relation to the purpose of their research.

According to the study, 4 factors explain the time spent by a user when he is faced with the content of a web page:

• his degree of motivation according to the importance he attaches to the information on the page,
• the original object of his research ,
• their level of attention – or inattention,
• as well as his personal characteristics on the way he tends to read a web page, by scanning it or by focusing on the small details.

The elements of this study are interesting because they make it possible to better adapt the writing of the content of a website according to the behavior of Internet users, in order to better meet their needs. To organize the content of your page, it is recommended to:

• Use clear and visible headers and subtitles to structure your text with subtitles, which will help Internet users to find what interests them most when scanning your page,
• Place essential information at the top of your page , but also in subtitles and links, to allow Internet users to understand the content,
• Use formatting techniques , such as bulleted lists and bold text, to allow the eye to focus on the most important information on your page,
• Use simple language to provide concise and clear content.

The wealth of SERPs has changed the behavior of Internet users

The study also analyzed Google’s search results pages through the eye movement of Internet users. If this type of page was previously scanned in a relatively linear fashion, the results show that this is no longer the case today. The cause: the diversity and richness of the elements that make up a SERP page on the Google search engine, or its competitor Bing.

According to the analysis of the Nielsen Norman group, Internet users scan this kind of page on the pinball model, bouncing from block to block between the different elements offered on a SERP.

The features included in search results have different impacts on the behavior of Internet users. They can :

• Act as “traffic signs” which, thanks to the images, allow the user to verify that the response provided corresponds to his initial request,
• Direct the user’s attention to the elements of the SERP , with the significant weight of the visuals which catch the eye in different directions, which causes the movement of the pinball machine,
• Modify requests and tasks , with blocks like People Also Ask or carousels, which offer the user to explore other alternatives without leaving the SERP,
• Provide quick responses thanks to position 0, but which has the effect of stopping the user’s search without clicking on the proposed results, a phenomenon called “good abandonment”.

Eye movement has adapted to the evolution of design on the web

The study also notes major changes in eye movement depending on the design of a page, and this since 2006. This development is marked by responsive design, which has become the new standard for all websites. It allows you to adapt the text of a web page according to the size of the screen. The perception of the content on a page has thus evolved, with the increasing use of comparison tables and the “zigzag” arrangement, which allows text and images to be alternated at different places on the page.

On pages containing content cells, the majority of Internet users read these cells on the model of the lawn mower. Just as the machine operates on a lawn, the eye will go through the content in a methodical way, starting from left to right, then going down to the next line and continuing from right to left, and so on.

On a product page, like here the description of the Apple Watch 3, the eye will proceed in the same way, passing from the image to the text, then again from the text to the image, in a similar movement to that of the lawn mower.