Blog
What the research says about websites that work
Each post takes one finding from usability, eye-tracking, or search research and explains what it means for your site. Sources are linked in every post.
The 24-Pixel Tap Target Minimum and Why It Is a Floor
WCAG 2.2 AA sets a 24 by 24 CSS pixel minimum for tap targets, with exceptions. Treat it as the floor for secondary controls and size main buttons larger.
How People Hold Their Phones and Where to Put Buttons
In 1,333 observations, 49% held phones one-handed, 36% cradled, and 15% two-handed. Design mobile pages for both hands, with key actions mid-screen.
On Phones, People Look Top-Left First
Eye tracking on mobile interfaces found a strong top-left gaze bias driven by expectation more than color or size. Put your most important element there.
What Predicted Attention Maps Can and Cannot Tell You
Saliency models predict what draws the eye at first glance, not what people read or do. They miss banner blindness and habits. Use them only for visual weight.
Click Maps Do Not Show Where People Look
A 36-person study found cursor position tracks gaze unevenly across users and tasks. A cold spot on a click map does not mean visitors never saw that content.
Googlebot Does Not Click, So Load Content Up Front
Google indexes the mobile version of your site and its crawler does not click, swipe, or type. Content loaded only on interaction may never be indexed.
On Mobile, Bold Graphic Blocks Can Look Like Ads
Mobile users swiping past content can mistake large, high-contrast images and graphics for ads and skip them. Keep real content in the normal text flow.
Stop Your Page From Shifting While It Loads
Google rates Cumulative Layout Shift good at 0.1 or less. Late banners, ads, cookie bars, and embeds push content and cause mis-taps.
Your Hero Image and Largest Contentful Paint
Google rates LCP as good at 2.5 seconds or less. The hero image is often the element measured, so how you load it affects how fast your page appears to load.
Repeat Your Call to Action on Long Pages
Visitors spend 43% of viewing time below the fold, spread thin across the page. One button at the top misses people who scroll. Repeat it after key sections.
Start List Items With the Word That Differs
When list items all begin with the same words, users skip those words. Put the differentiating word first in lists, menus, links, and button groups.
Replace 'Click Here' With Descriptive Link Labels
Generic labels like 'click here' give scanning visitors nothing to latch onto. Write link and button labels that say where they go and start with the key word.
Photos of People Should Look Toward Your Headline
In banner ad tests, a face looking toward the text raised attention to it and improved memory. A face looking at the viewer pulled attention to itself.
Google Ranks Relevance Ahead of Page Experience
Google has no single page-experience ranking signal. It shows the most relevant content first and uses page experience as a tiebreaker between similar pages.
Make Primary Mobile Buttons at Least 44 Pixels Square
WCAG 2.2 sets 44x44 CSS pixels as the enhanced touch target size. Use it for the call, booking, and menu buttons that matter most on mobile.
Place Mobile Actions in the Middle of the Screen
People favor tapping and reading the middle of a phone screen, and edge targets are slower to hit. The old right-thumb reach drawings were retracted.
Keep Lines of Body Text to 50-75 Characters
Body text reads best at 50-75 characters per line. Longer lines look intimidating and get skipped, which is common on wide desktop layouts.
Visitors Learn to Ignore Parts of Your Pages
After one glance at an uninteresting area, users avoid it on that page, across the site, and sometimes on other sites. Keep key content out of those slots.
Put Navigation Where Visitors Expect to Find It
Visitors look for menus in conventional places. Unconventional navigation placement increases search time or abandonment, so use a standard top or left menu.
Put Your Best Items First in Lists and Grids
On a 50-item category page, the top 2 rows drew 5-10 fixations per item and the bottom 3 rows almost none. Order your lists by what matters most.
Cut Your Website Copy in Half
In usability testing, concise text using about half the words improved measured usability by 58%. Cut the words before changing the layout.
Keep the Same Content on Mobile and Desktop
Google indexes the mobile version of your site. Content, headings, and metadata missing from mobile can be missing from search too.
Replace Full-Screen Popups With Small Banners
Google advises against interstitials that cover the whole page or redirect visitors. A small banner can collect the same signups without it.
Zigzag Image Layouts Make Pages Harder to Scan
Alternating image and text rows cause repeated accidental glances at decorative images. Aligned layouts let visitors skip them and keep reading.
Make Prices, Numbers, and Contact Details Easy to Spot
When people hunt for a detail, their eyes jump to links, bold text, digits, and capitals. Make the details your visitors seek stand out.
Real Team Photos Get More Attention Than Long Bios
On one About page, real team photos drew about 10% more viewing time than the bios, though the bios took 316% more space.
On Listing Pages, Descriptions Get More Attention Than Photos
On Amazon category pages, 82% of viewing time went to text and 18% to photos. Write descriptions that help people compare your offerings.
Lead With the Key Point in Paragraphs and Headings
Scanners read the first two paragraphs and the first words of headings and links most. Put your main information in those places.
Place Your Primary CTA Directly Under the Headline
Eye-tracking data on where attention falls points to one spot for your main button: the first screen, center-left, right below the headline.
Put the Headline and CTA at the Top of the Hero
More than 65% of first-screen viewing time goes to the top half. Keep your headline and main button there instead of below a tall image.
Concise, Scannable, Objective Copy Improved Usability 124%
Writing that was concise, scannable, and objective improved measured usability by 124% in one study. How to apply all three changes to a business site.
Visitors Skip Generic Stock Photos and Study Real Ones
Eye tracking shows users ignore generic feel-good stock photos and look at images with useful information, like real products and people. What to change.
The F-Shaped Reading Pattern Is a Formatting Problem
Eye tracking shows F-shaped scanning happens mostly on unformatted walls of text and causes visitors to miss content. How to format pages to prevent it.
Right Sidebar Content Is Rarely Seen
On one tested site the right sidebar drew 0.8% of content-area fixations, about 33 times less than its size warranted. Where to put key content instead.
Descriptive Subheadings Help Visitors Find What They Need
Eye tracking shows layer-cake scanning, reading headings and then only the matching section, is the most effective way to scan. How to support it.
Visitors Ignore Anything That Looks Like an Ad
Banner blindness research shows users skip content in ad positions or with ad-like styling. How to present offers and calls to action so they get seen.
The First Two Screens Get 74% of Viewing Time
Eye tracking shows the first two screens of a page get 74% of viewing time and the first three get 81%. How to order the sections on your pages.
About 80% of Attention Lands on the Left Half of a Page
Eye tracking found about 80% of fixations fall on the left half of web pages. Where to place headlines, offers, and calls to action as a result.
79% of Web Users Scan Pages Instead of Reading Them
Usability research found 79% of users always scanned new web pages and 16% read word by word. How to write business pages for people who scan.
57% of Page Viewing Time Happens Above the Fold
Eye tracking shows visitors spend 57% of their viewing time in the first screen of a page. Here is what that means for your key business pages.