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User Attention Span
Posted on July 6, 2012 at 2:32 pm
I’ve worked on a lot of websites and one thing I am often impressed by is how little many clients understand the basic behavior and attention span of the average user.According to Statistic Brain, most people have only an 8-second attention span (it might be even shorter). It follows that if you don’t engage viewers instantly, you will lose them. Site owners therefore have an 8-second or less window of time to present the desired content — or a quick way to get to it. If users aren’t finding what they want on a site immediately, they will leave.
There are three major things you can do to keep the user’s attention. First, ensure the design of the page clean and simple; if the next step isn’t clear, your viewers will go elsewhere. You are guiding them on a path; you want to make it easy for them to find what they are looking for.
The second is to make sure your navigation does not get too deep. If you have important content, don’t bury it at the bottom of some drop down menu — try to keep it front and center, if possible. The basic industry rule of thumb here is to get your users where they need to go within three clicks.
Finally, make sure your content easy to understand. Don’t bother setting out to write the next great American novel: your viewers will not bother to read it. Keep your copy short and sweet — it will serve you better in keeping the viewer engaged.
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