The Out Route

The above is part of Jakob Nielsen's study of how people look at the Web. Nielsen used an eye-tracker to gauge where people tend to focus on a web page. The study attempts to help web designers create pages to attract maximum attention, but there's an interesting side-note: men tend to look at crotches.

When photos do contain people related to the task at hand, or the content users are exploring, they do get fixations. However, gender makes a distinct difference on what parts of the photo are stared at the longest. Take a look at the hotspot below.

Although both men and women look at the image of George Brett when directed to find out information about his sport and position, men tend to focus on private anatomy as well as the face. For the women, the face is the only place they viewed.

Coyne adds that this difference doesn't just occur with images of people. Men tend to fixate more on areas of private anatomy on animals as well, as evidenced when users were directed to browse the American Kennel Club site.

I have a hard time believing NO women looked at Brett's crotch, because whenever I watch sports with women they find a way to comment on any given player's ass. Maybe the women tested would have been more interested in a Tony Gwynn picture.

I guess, as far as the man side of the study goes, this could be accurate. I mean, it's in ill form to sneak a peek at the urinals, so you've got to see what the competition is like somehow, right? I think, probably, Nielsen used The Todd as his focus group.