Objective Empirically test how readers mentally engage with and respond to news design that is “Brain friendly” by aligning design to brain truths Methodology Media Psychophysiology an experimental research method using physiological indicators (heart rate and skin conductance) of attention to measure “engagement.”

1. Brain-friendly design:
How brain science can help keep readers engaged

2. The geeky-nerdy stuff
Objective
Empirically test how readers mentally engage with and
respond to news design that is “Brain friendly” by
aligning design to brain truths
Methodology
Media Psychophysiology an experimental research method
using physiological indicators (heart rate and skin
conductance) of attention to measure “engagement.”

3. More geekiness
Research procedure
• 80 Adults who regularly obtain news from online sources
were recruited to participate.
• Participants read 4 news stories (2 brain friendly / 2 brain
unfriendly).
• Psychophysiological measures were recorded while
participants read each story.
• Participants completed self-report questions measuring
perceptions of the story immediately after reading each
story.

4. We’re not done nerding you out yet

6. Readers more effectively engage with
thematically segmented news writing.
The brain only has so many resources to
allocate all the mental tasks — perceiving,
paying attention to, trying to remember, and
learn information. It has to simultaneously shift
attention and effort between the tasks. So
there's a cost. For every task, there are fewer
resources left to process other tasks.

8. Readers more effectively engage with
semantically related page design.
Anything that pulls processing away from the central idea of
what the individual is focused on will be either frustrating or
ignored. We've developed the ability to just completely tune
out distracting elements. A [poorly placed] ad may get us for
a moment, and evoke negative emotion (not good for an
news organization wanting to build relationships), or the
user is just going to block it out: banner ad blindness.

10. Readers engage with motivationally
relevant news.
In milliseconds, the brain immediately determines
the motivation significance of information in our
sensory environment. So, in reporting and delivering
the news, journalists shouldn't be afraid of emotion.
That motivates the brain to process. That signals
importance. Ask: “Is there any element in here
portraying emotion, such as good photographs?”

11. Brain-unfriendly design

13. Distracting elements can reduce comprehension
• Animated gifs
• Odd sizes, shapes that interrupt flow
• Garish colors that overpower content
• Auto-play
• Flyovers, takeovers, popovers, popups, swoops
• Photos and links to unrelated stories

14. Brain-friendly design

16. Elements of brain-friendly design
• Formatting the text of the story into shorter paragraphs.
• Highlighting important story facts and terms.
• Clean, uncluttered page design.
• Uninterrupted flow.
• Interactions that user calls for, not autoplay
• Readable type on all platforms

19. Want to know more?
• https://www.rjionline.org/stories/how-to-make-online-news-
brain-friendly
• https://www.rjionline.org/stories/how-do-we-improve-online-
news-design-to-help-readers-better-understand-stor
• https://www.rjionline.org/stories/results-are-in-a-cleaner-
webpage-design-equals-more-engaged-readers
• https://www.rjionline.org/stories/elements-of-brain-friendly-
design-for-news-websites

20. Alex Remington: alexander.remington@washpost.com
Brian Steffens: steffensb@rjionline.org
RJI Fellows Paul Bolls (2011-2012), Barrett Golding (2015-2016)