How to capture your readers' attention

What’s the difference between you and a goldfish? Sorry, did I lose you?

Goldfish have an average attention span of 9 seconds while people have an average of...wait for it... a whole 8 seconds.

We live in a society where we’re bombarded with information - it’s literally at our fingertips every second. Because we’re used to instant information, we’re very good at tuning out information in order to be selective with our attention.

Each year, our attention span diminishes, but don’t think of this as a problem, think of it as a way to creatively embrace this constraint with these six tips from 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk.

Capture your user's attention

In order to emphasize your point, direct people by knowing how to capture their attention.

1. Animation creates interest:

 People react to anything that moves. Fun fact: Our peripheral vision is more sensitive to movement, a skill we               developed to protect us from danger. Humans had to constantly scan their surroundings to check for predators, and  while we’re no longer on wild animal watch, we do love animation.

2. People love faces:

Humans are naturally drawn to faces; we see them where they don't actually exist and respond positively to           pictures of human faces - use this to your advantage in your marketing.

3. Design to make an impact:

Want your reader to be drawn to your most important information or features? Draw their eye to it by using design elements to make them pop, such as using bright colors, text, and big pictures. Not sure if you're successfully making something pop? Try the squint test - when you squint at your screen, what elements stick out to you? Most likely it’s bright colors, bolded text, and vivid pictures.

4. Use novelty to your benefit

When something is new and exciting, we tend to pay attention to it over things we see on a daily basis - you can trigger your users' curiosity by introducing something novel.

Example (source):  Which one the below images interest you? 

Clearly, the second option is more engaging. It presents the same information, but the user feels engaged because of the novelty of the graphic.

5. Food. Sex. Danger.

Can I eat it, can I have sex with it, and will it kill me?

Upon first review, you may chuckle, but this powerful trio is ingrained in you - it’s part of your natural instincts to scan the environment and answer these questions. Knowing this, you can use these tools to capture attention.

Use Food to Persuade:

Food - we need it, we love it, and we can all be persuaded by it. Posting pictures of delicious food makes the user have a positive experience, so try this tool if it’s relevant to your industry.

Sex Sells:

Depending on the demographic, showing attractive pictures of the opposite sex can draw positive and powerful attention. Simply put, sex sells.

6. Appeal to emotions through storytelling

Emotions drive the human experience, and because of that, it creates a willingness to explore and learn. When presented correctly, appealing to the users’ emotions can be a powerful tool.

7. Use emotional pictures

In order to truly connect, use visuals to tell a story and evoke emotions. Whatever emotion you decide on, one of best ways to deliver the message is through visuals. Videos are especially impactful, creating deeper emotional connections because of the music, sound, or voices in them.

People love stories, and it’s your job to create and tell yours. Your website should be a medium to tell your unique story, appeal to emotions, and engage with your audience.

9. Create genuine cues:

Humans only pay attention to what’s important, so it’s crucial to conduct research and understand the end user. You must know their needs to create genuine cues that resonate with them.

These authentic cues will have great impact if they can show empathy, can be relatable, and demonstrate that not only are you listening to their problems, but you’re generating a solution for them.

Once you have these salient cues in place, you can then enhance them with the other tools listed to make the message stand out.

10. Contrast

Demonstrating opposites always gets people’s attention; try using pictures, graphics, or videos showing before/after shots, good/bad lists, or dos/dont’s to captivate your audience. This tool of showing polar opposites is highly effective; people want to make good choices and stay away from the bad - you just have to show them how.

Takeaways

1. Understand your audience: You must make the information valuable.

1. Use tools: Employ various techniques to emphasize the message in an entertaining, engaging, or interesting way.

1. Establish trust: Never use these tools to trick your audience. The last thing you want to do is mislead your reader with clickbait. At the very least, you’ll lose their trust and annoy them and at most, you’ll send them to your competitor and find yourself with scathing reviews.

1. Test it out: These tools are great in theory, but make sure to test them with real users, see what works, fine tune, and repeat until you get it just right.

Focus on quality, interesting, valuable, and relevant content, and you’ll capture the attention and hearts of your users.