EyeTrack07 - on-line and off-line reader behavior

The results of the study Poynter EyeTrack07 - recorded view of 600 readers who viewed newspapers and texts on the monitor ( via ). To everyone's surprise, it turned out that readers read the majority of the selected texts online. You can download PDF files - presentation and short version .

Conclusions (updated translation from GroovyMarketing):

1. Readers read a large share of text online — on average, they read 77% of what they chose to read. Readers of widescreen newspapers - an average of 62%, readers of tabloid tabloids - 57%. Observables read texts of all formats almost completely, even more than expected. Two thirds of online readers who have selected a particular article read the entire text.
   
2. People read in 2 ways: sequentially or scanning. About 75% of off-line readers read consistently. Of the online readers half - scans, half - consistently. But what type of online readers would not be, they read about the same amount of text.
   
3. Alternative forms of text presentation help people understand and memorize the material they have read. These can be questions and answers, historical tables, short blocks, lists. Such non-standard elements focused more on themselves. Readers of wide-format newspapers paid 30% more attention to alternative forms of presenting textual information.
   
4. Large headlines and large photographs in print attracted more attention - they are primarily looked at. But online readers paid more attention to navigation bars and teasers.
   
   
5. Photos of real people, documentary photos attracted more attention than staged or studio photos. Black and white photographs attract 20% less attention than color. Photos of the authors of articles in the "passport" style were of little interest.

So what happens? Online readers are more grateful - they will read almost all the text if they want. You can attract them not only with the title, they pay attention to the navigation (most likely - to the overall design of the site), and to information teasers.
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