A web page, in its basic form, is
simply a communication channel. It organizes and displays information
to a visitor. These visitors do not read websites like a book; they
scan information as if given a flyer on the street. For more details
on this check the article "The First Three Seconds: How Users Are Lost." In a world of users scanning websites, the
positioning of information is paramount. Back in 1885, a German
psychologist named Hermann Ebbinghaus coined the phrase "serial
position effect" to explain how the placement of information
affects an individual's ability to recall it.
The serial position effect is broken
down into two areas: Recency and Primacy. The recency effect states
that individuals will recall additional information about more recent
data because it is still in short-term memory. For example, if a user
is asked to recall a list of words just spoken/read, the user
generally starts with the bottom of the list and will remember more
from that area. After recalling the last few items, the Primary
effect takes over. In this effect, a user recalls the first few items
in a list as the brain has committed them to long-term memory. This
was an important discovery because it highlighted the subconscious
importance and the subtle ignorance placed on information.
Armed with this knowledge, any
programmer can make a difference in basic web design, but how? It's
important to review the overall visual hierarchy of a website.
Information should be broken down into smaller, consumable areas.
Large sections of data can be easily separated with illustrations, headings, or simply a more formal layout such as a list.
Breaking out information helps with information recall and it is more
visually appealing. This is where Hick's Law regarding smaller lists becomes
important. Read more here. Don't forget to review the overall layout again after a
set of changes are made. Sometimes small decisions can start to
encroach on the larger hierarchy of a web page.
Even though Hermann Ebbinghaus's
findings are more than 100 years old, they have never rung more true.
The information age has brought along with it a level of saturation
that is unprecedented in human history. Having a better understanding
of a visitor's psychology allows for better, smarter design. The
Internet is a very large place and it can be difficult to make an
impact. It's all about making memorable, "sticky" content
that drives return visits or creates happy visitors.
