Poynter Eyetracking study March 07

Poynter EyeTrack07 A study of print and online news reading

EyeTrack07 partners

Our readers:

Who was tested? 100 subjects at each location 49% Men 56% 18-41 years of age 51% Women 44% 42-65 years of age The average age was 39 years

Who was tested? 100 subjects at each location Some college 87% GENERALLY READS PRINT OR ONLINE EDITIONS OF THE PAPER 29% 1 - 3 times a week Employed 75% 71% 4 or more times a week

Poynter EyeTrack07 Major findings

How much was read?

Major finding: How much was read 1. In all formats — people chose what they wanted to read ... and they read a lot. Even more than we thought they would.

Major finding: How much was read Most surprising: A much larger percentage of story text was read online than in print.

Major finding: How much was read On average, online readers read 77 percent of what they chose to read. Tabloid 57 percent Broadsheet 62 percent Online 77 percent 0 20 40 60 80

Major finding: How much was read Nearly two-thirds of online readers, once they chose a particular item to read, read ALL of the text.

Major finding: How much was read Online readers read an average of 77% of what they chose to read.

Major finding: Jumps Jumps really were read. P OY NT E R EY ET RA C K 0 7

Major finding: Jumps Tabloid readers, on average, read a higher percentage of jumped story text than broadsheet readers. Broadsheet 59% Tabloid 68% P OY NT E R EY ET RA C K 0 7

What influences reading?

Reading style

Reading style: Methodical Scanning

Methodical readers tend to: Read from top to bottom, without much scanning Read in a full, two-page view in print Re-read some material Use dropdown menus and navigation bars to locate stories

Scanning readers tend to: Scan pages, headlines and other display elements without much text reading Read part of a story, jump to photographs or other elements without going back to the same place in the text Look at story lists, click on a story, then read it

Major finding: Reading style 2. About 75 percent of print readers tended to be methodical in their reading.

Major finding: Reading style 2. About 75 percent of print readers tended to be methodical in their reading. About half of the online readers were scanners, while the other half were methodical in their behavior.

Major finding: Volume of reading by style Online, there was very little difference in the amount of text read between methodical readers and scanners. METHODICAL SCANNER Online (77%) 78% 77% Broadsheet (62%) 65% 57% Tabloid (57%) 66% 45%

Major finding: Volume of reading by style Online, there was very little difference in the amount of text read between methodical readers and scanners. METHODICAL SCANNER Online (77%) 78% 77% Broadsheet (62%) 65% 57% Tabloid (57%) 66% 45% In print, methodical readers read a higher percentage of text than scanners.

Major finding: Volume of reading by style Online, there was very little difference in the amount of text read between methodical readers and scanners. METHODICAL SCANNER Online (77%) 78% 77% Broadsheet (62%) 65% 57% Tabloid (57%) 66% 45% In print, methodical readers read a higher percentage of text than scanners. And this was comparable in broadsheet and tabloid.

Major finding: Volume of reading by style Online, there was very little difference in the amount of text read between methodical readers and scanners. METHODICAL SCANNER Online (77%) 78% 77% Broadsheet (62%) 65% 57% Tabloid (57%) 66% 45% Tabloid scanners read a considerably smaller percentage of text.

Alternative story forms

Major finding: Alternative story forms 3. In our prototype test, we found that things like a Q&A, a timeline, a fact box or a short list helped readers understand and remember what they’d read. Narrative Narrative + graphic No traditional narrative

Major finding: Alternative story forms Subjects read one of six different versions of a story. Each version included identical information — fact for fact, but the design and story structure differed. Narrative Narrative + graphic No traditional narrative

Major finding: Alternative story forms Story forms, like a Q&A, a timeline, a fact box or a list – drew a higher amount of visual attention, compared to regular text in print.

Major finding: Alternative story forms On average, we saw 15 percent more attention to what we call alternative story forms than to regular text in print.

Major finding: Alternative story forms On average, we saw 15 percent more attention to what we call alternative story forms than to regular text in print. This number rose to 30 percent in broadsheet format.

How are these numbers figured?

What we mean by “above average” When we say that an element drew more attention we mean it attracted more “eye stops” than we might have expected. TOTAL # OF % AVAILABLE EYESTOPS SEEN Large photos 20 10 50% Small photos 100 20 20%

What we mean by “above average” Here’s an example: TOTAL # OF % AVAILABLE EYESTOPS SEEN Large photos 20 10 50% Small photos 100 20 20%

What’s looked at first?

Major finding: Big is better for headlines, photos 4. In print, readers looked at large headlines and photos first — and these got dramatically more attention than smaller headlines and photos.

Major finding: Online, it’s directional devices But online, readers go for navigation bars, teasers and other things that we consider to be directional devices.

Photographs

Major finding: Photos 5. Color photos draw more attention in broadsheet. Black and white photos receive 20 percent less attention than you might expect, based on what is available to be seen.

Major finding: Photos In print, live, documentary news photos got more attention than staged photos. Studio or staged photos received much less attention than we might expect.

Major finding: Photos Mug shots got relatively little attention.

There’s much more to come! More results from EyeTrack07. EyeTrack07 conference, April 10-12 at Poynter. The full report will be released in June of this year. Go to eyetrack.poynter.org for more information.

Future studies: We’re interested in working with you! We have the equipment, the expertise and lots of ideas. Further analysis of the rich data set we’ve gathered. News broadcast design: crawls, graphics, editing speed News delivery on high definition, large and small screens, telephones Innovation in interactivity, search options

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Poynter Eyetracking study March 07

by coolstuff on Mar 28, 2007

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Poynter Eyetracking study March 07 — Presentation Transcript