Ask HN: What is the first thing a user sees?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5660558

by Aeiper • 13 years ago

1 2 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

When someone goes onto a website, what do you think is the first thing he/she sees? Text? Images? Logo?

stray• 13 years ago

a blank page

pedalpete• 13 years ago

I'm not an expert, but I suspect our eyes go from the micro to the macro.

Therefore, they are going to start with layout, then colors, then images, then text.

Don't ignore how text is a part of layout and visual. Font style and size are therefore important.

This is why (I suspect) something like bootstrap is so important, it gives you the right start on a layout which is simple and appealing.

You then customise that layout with your colors, and images are a collection of colors, so I suspect your website colors along with any images are absorbed by the user at mostly the same time.

Your logo is also an image, and compared to text, is often prominent. Therefore, logo should probably be considered slightly after images and colours.

You can also think of your question from a 'reptile brain' angle. At each step, a users mind is asking if what they are looking at is a threat or is appealing.

This brain has to view the entire page at once, therefore, layout. It then will pick out the next features it can, colours and images. Then it will drill in on text. But at that point, I'd suspect the brain has already selected that the site is appealing, and now your text needs do grab their interest.

Ask HN: What is the first thing a user sees?

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