Let me introduce myself since I’m new to Normal Modes and hence to the blog. My name is Sara and I’m a User Experience Consultant. My background is in Computer Science and I specialized in Human-Computer Interaction for my Master’s degree.
What I particularly enjoyed studying while in graduate school was cognition and the physical limitations humans have when interacting with technology. While browsing the web the other day, I was reminded of two principles by a website on which I was attempting to read a news article.
Principle 1: Humans are not multi-taskers. As much as we would like to think we are accomplishing 2 or 3 or 5 things at once, we really only excel at task-switching. You cannot talk on the phone and drive at the same time. You are either concentrating on the conversation or concentrating on the road but you are switching back and forth at such a rate that you believe you are multi-tasking. This is why hands-free devices are not the solution; but that’s another discussion.
Principle 2: The human eye has developed so that only a small part of the retina can see objects sharply and clearly. Therefore, human beings must constantly move their eyes and heads to be able to view objects in the 2 degrees of their field of vision that exposes the image to that part of the retina.
As I am reading a news article on the topic of education and my eyes are focused on the upper-left area of the screen, a pop-up appears at the lower, right-hand corner alerting me to another education article I might find interesting with a link to view it. I am now frustrated and upset. The site has forced my gaze to be diverted to the pop-up and forced me to switch tasks. I am no longer attuning to and engaged in the article. Instead, I am looking at a pop-up that has interrupted me. Worse still, once I return my attention to the article, I have lost my place. Why would I have wanted to click on the link anyway to start reading another article when I have not finished reading the one I am currently viewing?
This is why UX designers talk about funnels, especially in an e-commerce checkout process. You want to allow the user to focus, finish and not get distracted. An element on your site should not be the proverbial call or text that causes the user to drive off the road.
However, there are other UX designers who disagree with me. You can read Jason F.’s commentary here.
