Here are the slides from the HFES 2013 Presentation "The Impact of Advertising Location and User Task on the Emergence of Banner Ad Blindness"

1. THE IMPACT OF ADVERTISING
LOCATION AND USER TASK ON THE
EMERGENCE OF BANNER AD
BLINDNESS
Marc Resnick, Ph.D.
Bentley University
mresnick@bentley.edu
humanfactors.blogspot.com
@PerformSol
Bill Albert, Ph.D.
User Experience Center
walbert@bentley.edu
www.bentley.edu/centers/
user-experience-center

2. Online Advertising
 $12.1 Billion in 2010 (Businessweek)
 $77 Billion in 2016 (Forrester Research)
 $28 Billion in 2016 just for display ads (Forbes)
Even though many of us find them annoying, they are not going
anywhere, anytime soon.

3. Banner Blindness
 Stems from the cognitive phenomenon of inattention blindness (IB)
in which users do not perceive or focus attention on stimuli with a
low probability of containing task relevant information
 IB for banner ads emerges because users do not expect task
relevant information to be contained in banner ads
 Banner ads can reliably be predicted to be located on the right side
of a web page and to some extent on the top, above the navigation
menu – so they are easy to avoid and are a prime candidate for IB.
top ad
right ad

4. Study Objectives
 If banner blindness emerges when users expect ads to
contain a low probability of task relevant information,
what happens when the task does not require specific
information?
 If the right side is more likely to have advertising than
the top, is there more banner blindness for right side
ads than top ads?
 Is there an interaction between these two influences on
user attention?

5. Method
 Home pages of eighteen moderately popular web sites
were presented with either a top or right side banner ad
 Users were assigned either a goal-directed or a free-
viewing task
 Eye tracking was used to quantify how much users
looked at each area of interest on the web page.

6. DwellTime on the Banner Ad
not significantly different
significantly
different
banner
blindness

7. FreeViewingTask andTop Ad
Looked
everywhere
including the ad
and other typical
ad locations

8. FreeViewingTask and Right Ad
Looked
everywhere
including the ad
and other typical
ad locations

9. Goal DirectedTask andTop Ad
Some viewing of
the top ad
Viewing
concentrated on
the content

10. Goal DirectedTask and Right Ad
Minimal viewing
of the right ad
Viewing
concentrated on
the content

11. Summary
 When users have a specific information goal, they only
view page areas that are likely to contain relevant
information. They have inattention blindness to other
locations.
 Users are more likely to expect advertising on the right
side than the top of the page.
 There is an interaction between these two influences
◦ users will look at locations that are moderately likely to contain
ads, even in a goal-directed task.
◦ when users do not have a specific information goal, banner
blindness does not emerge.

12. Practical Implications
 Banner blindness emerges because users prefer to avoid attending to
advertising when they have specific information to look for – so
fooling them by masking advertising is likely to lead to reduced brand
preferences.
 When users are free viewing, they are OK with looking at ads, so
interesting, attractive ads can be valuable.
 User behavior was different among the 18 home page designs. The
reasons remain unclear but there may be valuable insights into how
to design home pages to increase users’ willingness to view ads.
 The increase in total dwell time was over 200 ms for unavoided
banner ads. Over time, this can lead to significant brand awareness,
familiarity, and preference.

13. Thank You!!