Browsing Habits
Part of user-experience design is considering how elements on a web page compete for attention. We spend so much time prioritizing the prominence of items within a page while making little consideration for what else people are doing. What if users rarely devote 100% of their attention to a web page? To learn more, I surveyed 83 of my closest friends on their browsing habits:
On Average, how many browser windows do you have open at once?
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four to Five
- Five +
On Average, how many browser tabs do you have open at once?
- One to Two
- Three to Four
- Five to Six
- Seven +
Typically, where do you spend the majority of your time while browsing?
- Living Room
- Office
- Bedroom / Dorm
- Kitchen
What types of applications do you have open while browsing (multiple answer)
- Music / Audio
- Social Networking
- Word Processing
- Online Chat
- Creative Applications
- Data Processing
While browsing, what are you doing outside the computer? (multiple answer)
- Watching TV
- Working
- Radio / Music
- Mobile
- Eating / Drinking
- Household Work
- Hobby
When visiting a website, what percentage of your full attention do you give?
- 100%
- 75%
- 50%
- 25%
How long does it take to decide whether or not to click further into a website?
- 1-2 seconds
- 5-20 seconds
- 20 seconds – 1 minute
- 1 minute +
What is your age? Remember, this survey is anonymous.
- Younger than 20
- 20-29
- 30-39
- 40-49
- 50-59
- 60-69
- 70+
What does this mean?
To me, this just confirms what we’ve always known. People don’t browse in a vacuum. We’re mid-conversation, getting off the bus with battery life & email notifications blinking at us web browsers. My Paravel cohort recently tweeted:
The less your design competes with itself, the less you compete with everything else
This high level of competition for attention is something web designers must always have in mind. Keep things simple. Present users with one idea at a time and while you’re at it, go ahead and make that button 20px larger.
Great stuff Trent. I think you are right on. The simpler and clearer, the better. Say what you are trying to say without dividing users attention in 5 different competing ways.
Its great to have rich and dynamic content, but design it in a way so that there is a “look here first” focus on every page.
This is very true, but begs the question:
How can you have 83 closest friends and still get stuff done?!
Ha! Who said I get anything done?!? Plus, anyone who fills out a survey for me definitely qualifies as a close friend.
I think that you are right on!
As Steve Krug would say, we don’t figure things out or pay attention initially. We muddle through them. With xx amount of browser windows/tabs open and xx apps running while browsing, it’s easy to see why it’s rare that 100% of your full attention goes to one particular web page.
I’m pretty surprised at the high % of eating/drinking though, almost beating out actual work. Unless this accounts for mobile browsing too. I’m always eating lunch and reading news on my iphone, but rarely eat while at the office desk.
David, I’m surprised about the food % as well. It could reference the coffee house / open bag of snacks type of thing. Thanks for stopping by & for commenting.
good write up Trent. And I completely agree with trying to present one item at time. I don’t understand why sites try fill up sidebars with as much crap as possible to try and take their users away from the information they were trying to find in the first place.
So we finally get to see your dribbble shots come to life. This is a beautiful post Trent, I love everything about it.
Thanks, Jack. It’s been fun sharing dribbble screenshots as posts come together.
Excellent article. I was just really getting into it, when I suddenly got distrated by…