Okay for those of you who don’t know what an F-pattern is, check out Web guru, Jakob Nielsen’s, article on how people read Web content. In a nutshell there is a reason many Web pages are laid out in a similar fashion. Read the entire article at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html.
Summary:
Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe.
Google launched a new commenting tool last week that has many folks up in arms. Google Sidewiki allows users to post comments about any Web page they visit by putting their thoughts in a sidebar right on the page. So let’s say you are on the home page for Epcot at Disney World — you can post a comment about your totally exhilarating ride to Mars on Space Epcot. It will appear on the side of the page if you’ve installed the Sidewiki tool. Or better yet, you can visit the bio page of your favorite M&A lawyer and comment on his responsiveness on your last M&A deal that went south.
There is a complicated set of ways that Google plans to monitor any disparaging remarks. And Web site owners will have some rights. If you haven’t checked out Sidewikis, we urge you to do so. It only takes minutes to install and it is quickly apparent that it will eventually prove to be valuable if managed correctly.
