In left-to-right languages, text on the left and towards the top of the page is read more than text on the right or towards the bottom of the page. This scanning behavior results in an eyetracking pattern that resembles the capital letter F - hence, our name for this pattern. In the absence of subheadings and bullets, users tend to fixate on the words toward the beginning of lines and toward the top of the page. Note that there are other patterns that may be used when the page content involves a lot of images (e.g., the zigzag pattern and exhaustive review). In this article, I focus on the 4 patterns that people use to scan text on the web (listed below in increasing order, worst to best, of effectiveness): Our eyetracking research has identified multiple scanning patterns for webpages. The type of page content (e.g., text versus images).Their assumptions from previous experiences with the internet, site, or brand.How people read on the web is highly contingent upon: They have learned that scanning can deliver almost the same amount of information as reading, but with significant less time and effort. They naturally attempt to be efficient and put in the least possible work for achieving their goal.

On the web, people don’t read every word on a page instead, they scan.

Body text scanner