Dr Jakob Nielsen, proclaimed the “guru of web usability” by The New York Times, is a widely acknowledged expert on web usability. In 2007, Nielsen studied about banner advertising, coining the term “Banner Blindness”, describing how web-users typically ignore advertisements on the web.
Nielsen summarized that users rarely look at website display ads, and that to increase the effectiveness of banner advertising, an ‘unethical’ and deceptive method commonly used is to trick users into clicking onto the ads by disguising them as editorial content. An example of this is by incorporating fake “OK” or “Cancel” buttons after the pop-up ads, whereby the user is somehow diverted into the advertiser’s site.
Earlier studies in 2004 by Nielsen have shown that such online ads are either “very negatively” or “negatively” perceived by a whopping 94% of Web users, just 1 percentage point behind universally hated pop-up ads. His studies further concluded that, when users dislike online advertising, they “transfer their dislike to the advertisers behind the ad and to the website that exposed them to it.” Suffice it to say, familiarity breeds contempt. Users learn when they are duped by an online ad - gradually, that's how banner blindness come about.
Nielsen conducted extensive eyetracking studies that have conclusively proven that users “almost never look at anything that looks like an advertisement.” A 2003 survey conducted by PlanetFeedback, showed that only 8% of U.S. consumers trusted banner ads (right behind infomercials, but ahead of door-to-door salesmen, spam, and pop-up ads) with 53% respondents annoyed by banner ads.
Substantiating this research, a study published in BusinessWeek in November 2007, titled “So Many Ads, So Few Clicks”, reported that “the truth about online ads is that precious few people actually click on them. And the percentage of people who respond to common banner ads … is shrinking steadily”, with the average click-through rate having fallen to 0.2% in March of 2007 after several years of decline.
The results of this study have been substantiated in other independent research. Burke et al. (2005 pp. 423-445) experimented on the effects of banner ads on visual search, using 4 kinds of banners – animated commercial, static commercial, cyan with flashing text and a blank banner. The study revealed low banner recall, with animated banners faring way behind static ones.
An advertiser contemplating online ad space will do well to take note of these findings, for it is easy to conclude that such ads do not represent a very sound return on investment.
Norman (1999) summarized that "Banner Blindness" findings are a reaffirmation of the rules of consistency, coherence, and the patterns of established conventions. Cognitive schemas guide user attention and focus. Web designs should follow a ‘clear, coherent conceptual model, consistent with established conventions and genres’. Front the important things first, just like how one would relish the toppings of an ice-cream.
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Reference
Burke M, Hornof A, Nilsen E, Gorman N 2005, High-cost banner blindness: Ads increase perceived workload, hinder visual search, and are forgotten, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 423-445.
Business Week, So Many Ads, So Few Clicks, 12 November 2007, viewed 20 October 2010,
<http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/07_46/b4058053.htm?chan=gl>
Nielsen J 2004, The Most Hated Advertising Techniques, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, 6 December 2004, viewed 20 October 2010, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20041206.html>
Nielsen J 2007, Banner Blindness: Old & New Findings, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, 20 August 2007, viewed 18 October 2010, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/banner-blindness.html>
Norman D 1999, Commentary: Banner Blindness, Human Cognition and Web Design in Internetworking, March 1999, viewed 20 October 2010,
Image source:http://www.silenceisnonexistence.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/blindfold.jpg
Video source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo_a2cfBUGc
1 comment:
You've made some fantastic points, I think all of them come under the importance of attention to detail, if you get that right you're certainly off to a good start.
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