Rothesay March 13Th Word Count: 568 Visual Attention 1 2 Given That Our
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Rothesay March 13th Word count: 568 1 Visual Attention 2 3 Given that our visual attention has limited resources, we selectively attend to areas that 4 contain salient stimuli (Wolfe & Horowitz, 2004) or that match our internal goals (Hopfinger, 5 Buonocore, & Mangun, 2000). At the same time, other areas in the visual display are often 6 overlooked. Thus, a designer should carefully consider drawing viewers’ attention to important 7 information and reducing viewers’ attentional load on unimportant information. 8 Web designers recently tend to present all the information on a long page, and the 9 viewers need to scroll down to see different blocks of information. This new trend is probably 10 due to frequent mobile device use in our daily life, and we become more familiar with scrolling. 11 A critical piece of information on this type of webpage is to notify people to scroll down. 12 Otherwise, this design would be a complete failure. To successfully deliver this message, 13 designers can use preattentive features, such as motion, to draw people’s attention. For example, 14 on Google Drive’s webpage, the down arrow at the bottom of page informs people to scroll 15 down. Although the color makes the down arrow to stand out from the background, the 16 additional movement of the arrow is the key factor that draws people’s attention. Thus, dynamic 17 arrows can be useful to draw people’s attention to scroll down. 18 If a webpage is filled with dynamic objects, it will create competition between 19 information. To avoid this issue, other methods should be used to draw viewers’ attention. Since 20 we also tend to prioritize information that can solve our problem, a website or a mobile app can 21 emphasize its purpose and show it directly to the users. For instance, if designers want to design 22 a map app for tourists in London, they should use the same approach as a paper-based tourist 23 map by adding cartooned pictures of famous attractions on the map rather than using text labels 24 (Figure 1). This type of map will be more convenient than a regular map because the cartooned 25 pictures will draw tourists’ attention and help the tourists to quickly select attractions that are 26 interesting. On a regular map, text labels of the attraction will not be differentiable from route 27 names. In addition, processing texts will be much lower than processing pictures, given that we 28 can recognize pictures as briefly as 13 milliseconds (Hagmann & Potter, 2016). 29 Directing viewers’ attention to crucial information is important for designers, but 30 decreasing viewers’ attentional load on less crucial information is equally important to avoid 31 perceptual competition. One way to achieve this is to repeat some aspect of the design 32 throughout the entire webpage (Williams, 2015). For instance, on a webpage, the designers often 33 enlarge the font size or use a different color for the headings. To reduce viewers’ attentional 34 load, the font size or color for headings and sub-headings should be consistent throughout the 35 entire webpage. Another way is to present less crucial information at the peripheral areas of the 36 webpage. On a Facebook page, the newest posts which are the most important information for 37 the viewers are presented at the center of the webpage, but advertisement, game 38 recommendations, or Facebook groups are presented at the peripheral areas (Figure 2). This 39 layout can successfully decrease the attentional load for the viewers. 40 To conclude, the designers should not only consider how to draw viewers’ attention, but 41 they should also think about how to reduce viewers’ attentional load, given that we have limited 42 attentional resources. Figure 1: A tourist map of London A 30 31.168 U D ROAD 153 141 A A MIDDLETON PRIMROSE HILL 43 E 243 31 B Essex Road 279 E D 236 A B C D E R F G H J K L M N C O A 4 Y C M R A A UE N E Camden D C L L OND AVEN 19 G Cecil Sharpe E RI CHM 10 A A L E E Y 91 D Town O House B M 30 N C E W PRIMROSE HILL A R T A A CAMDEN TOWN D P Until February 1998 ’ S D L O S ALBERT Y C A 274 M ISLINGTON E 274 E I 38 TERR. PARK T F 274 Y O N 242 H VER R R service 242 will RO N O T A A D L CR R I D E A O 1 C2 L E E B 1 N V W E Business 73 run as 22 M E N O E M 13 R A K N A E V T P G 274 NO T R S Design C G PR Jewish S X ENU I I NC I R E D AD E O A A T COPENHAG O E P R POWNALL R L EN ST. A A H e 82 H O P Museum C A Centre T g B W C e S R E ER S R O O S K nt’ H P O s ’ T . S W C D 274 E A N E I a L T T S L N R BARING STREET n N R D IGH N R S al L O S 24 Q E N Y H G 113 D A E R E T S E E R A T O D A D L E T A U T U O O ANCEY E T . G . O A E R D Places of Interest N N U A R Q London N E Y C O D 29 E P H O ROAD S E D E E R LE T R Y T. T Wildlife London T A N C O N R A O R IR S 91 ER E S I ST C 135 O R Regent ’s Canal U T E WH S U D H T Trust Canal ’S R O St. John’s D P B B R A B N A I E A E R O A S PP R I L L T R 274 ST. Museum R U E R Barbican Centre K4 C L O E E N N Camden Wood L D U T HAGGERSTON O A Y I A E DA C A R R C W ST. D A E R A A C2 T N R PUDDL Passage W L G O O Y B TO O S D R A 10 S A C E Big Ben G8 S D O Market H D O H A E D D R R London Zoo E Chapel Street G O AL O Mornington T FD I C K AR D E G H R N W X Market H British Museum & Library F4 D V A2 D. O T Crescent EE A N R SH N 274 A A Geffrye A O O I E R O WHARF ROAD R D 139 N L E T L N W Angel Museum M ST. T W R O R KING’S A HITE LION Buckingham Palace E8 W P 10 I S 55 B G U I S 26 E H R A P S D N S L CROSS N T E I W A L O Y O U L H G D 48 R C IN E A A D L OA 26 Cabinet War R ooms F7 A S R N N D R O E 2 I S 2 R G 13 OAD N D L E EY I D R R G D T I N T H E 4.274 Y L L S C A E O I L V K N O L NV R R R C O S G C T R T N 82 N K Carnaby Street E5 A E E P Y E A E R 242 REGENT’ S PARK D R A U I R O A M R C . 73 E M H F 113 30 M O W T V I Kings Cross T P A R S W I City Information Centre J5 S ST. PANCRAS ALK . E D P L C 26 T P E Lord’s T T Thameslink . LE L S S C London R Cricket REET L I T S 55 Cleopatra’s Needle G6 E T Y Y Central E Ground . C2 Sadler’s Wells T R COLUM BI A ROAD N 24 E K T E 68 D D Mosque CI FINSBURY . G C S SHOREDITCH ET A R R ROAD I S Theatre RE E C A E R R T N E S D T Downing Street G7 O N L 29 N T O O V R P N E 188 91 SWINTON ST. N SSET R A GO I G J D O A T D E S T T 73 ’ R O 135 S E O R S R S W 4 D U T A T 8Eros-Piccadilly Circus F6 139 K T U 30 ACTON ST. 19 H A E O C L O E E E O E J R N E R 13 R EUSTON U 55 A W R 10 G T . D O 38 S L T D R S E ET Festival Hall H7 O D E D 82 D E R S L STR OL O R S C I ST.