Does the Intrusiveness of an Online Advertisement Influence User Recall and Recognition?

This study investigated the effect of the type (banner ad, pop-up ad and floating ad) and state (animated and non-animated) of online advertisements on recall and recognition of the advertisements. It was hypothesized that floating ads, pop-up ads, and animated ads would be easier to recall due to their intrusive nature. Results showed that participants in the pop-up ad and floating ad condition had better recall of the presence of the ad as well as better recognition. Animation did not significantly influence any of these measures.

Shrestha, Sav. Usability News (2006). Design>Web Design>Usability>E Commerce

Eye Gaze Patterns while Searching vs. Browsing a Website

This article discusses users' visual scan paths of web pages containing text and/or pictures while conducting browsing and searching tasks. User performance on three usability tasks on an e-commerce website is described. Results show that users follow a fairly uniform scan path when browsing through pictures, and a more random path while specifically searching through them. Additionally, users appeared to follow Nielsen's 'F' pattern (2006) while both browsing and searching through text-based pages.

Shrestha, Sav and Kelsi Lenz. Usability News (2007). Articles>Usability>Testing>Eye Tracking

Review: A Review of Morae 2.0 for Usability Testing

TechSmith's recent release, Morae 2.0, features a new graphing tool, integrated satisfaction survey, and embedded task definitions. The editable marker log in Observer and the improved timeline controls in the Manager improve operator efficiency. This article highlights these and other new features of the new 2.0.

Shrestha, Sav. Usability News (2007). Articles>Reviews>Usability>Testing

A Review of Morae for Usability Testing

TechSmith's Morae is a powerful tool that is useful for any usability study. Its simplicity, efficiency, cost effectiveness and portability has redefined the data collection process and allows researchers to focus on the user experience rather than the data collection tools. This article discusses some of the features of this tool and proposes some enhancements to make it even more powerful to usability practitioners.

Shrestha, Sav. Usability News (2007). Articles>Usability>Testing>Software

Eye Movement Patterns on Single and Dual-Column Web Pages

This study examines eye movement patterns of users browsing or searching a 1-column and 2-column news article on a web page. The results show a higher number of fixations for information in the second column of an article than for the same information in the lower portion of a single column. In addition, the typical "F" pattern appeared in the left column of the 2-column layout, but not in the right column. Users also fixated more on other page elements, such as ads, when they were browsing than when they were searching.

Shrestha, Sav and Justin W. Owens. Usability News (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Eye Tracking