What Courtney said. That's true. Not to mention the fact that if your users eyes are immediately drawn to a banner, you risk losing them to the response to that call to action. Oh, but they can come back really easily (say your detractors). No doubt, but why would they. Once a call to action is responded to (and this doesn't mean the user takes an action that's discernible to an observer), the whole site is likely to fall off the mental to-do list.

And then there are all the studies which universally show that users basically skip whatever's first on the page if it looks at all ad- like, so what are your "meaty messages" doing up there in the first place?

Katie Albers
Founder & Principal Consultant
FirstThought
User Experience Strategy & Project Management
310 356 7550
ka...@firstthought.com





On Feb 24, 2009, at 12:56 PM, Jordan, Courtney wrote:

Title! Title! Just as you said, title is what users are looking for to
ensure them they're in the right place. If users don't immediately see
the expected title when they click from some similarly labeled call to
action, uncertainty sets in. Did I click the right link? Am I in the
right place? Important elements that provide users with a sense of place
and ensure them that they're not lost (and that the company is taking
care of them, at least while they're on the site) should always take
precedence over marketing banners for the best user experience.

Courtney

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com
[mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of
Jennifer
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 4:54 AM
To: disc...@ixda.org
Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Visual Importance of Page Titles

Hi everyone,

We have a bit of an internal debate going on about the importance of
page titles - from a visual standpoint - as compared with other
elements of a page. That is to say, should a page title (what
displays *on* the page, not in the browser frame) be the most
important item of information on the page that a user first sees upon
arriving there?

Or, should the key marketing message - in our case, a 'banner'
image/graphic - take priority over a page title?

The argument for a page title being more important is that its raison
d'etre is to help the user understand where they've arrived at.

The argument for the 'banner' message being more important is that
it is the 'meat' that we want users to see and interact with. In
this case, it's not being suggested to remove page titles; instead,
to make them considerably smaller so that the focus is on the banner
space (which is top/center and large).

Thoughts? Opinions? I'd love your input!

Regards,
Jennifer
________________________________________________________________
Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org
Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe
List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines
List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help


________________________________________________________________
Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org
Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe
List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines
List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
________________________________________________________________
Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org
Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe
List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines
List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help

Reply via email to