Banner Blindness: Web Searchers Often Miss 'Obvious' Links
http://internettg.org/newsletter/dec98/banner_blindness.html

Panero, Jan Benway and David M. Lane
Internetworking
1998

Abstract:

Suppose you are designing a web page where one particular link among many is likely to be the most used by visitors. For example, perhaps you have a web page for sending text messages to pagers. 'Send a message' is likely to be a very popular link, and it is important that all users notice it. On a travel reservations page, the designer wants to be sure that users notice the link for 'make a reservation.' Web guidelines usually recommend that to make an important item stand out, it should be near the top, and be large and/or brightly colored.