One of the most persistent challenges facing organizations doing business online is how to attract the attention of, engage, and delight your audience in the few short seconds you have their notice. In 2000 the average human attention span was about 12 seconds long. By 2013 this had decreased to 8 seconds, and it has continued to fall since. When you consider that the average attention span of a goldfish is about 9 seconds, this trend is hardly encouraging for marketers.<\/p>\n
This is likely due to information overload.\u00a0 We are bombarded with an ever-growing stream of information, and multiple platforms and channels have evolved that help us process this data ever more quickly and painlessly.\u00a0 Wasting time on information processing has become an annoyance \u2013 our cognitive ability is limited and we dislike expending it on information of no value.<\/p>\n
Consequently, our brains are evolving to \u2018tune out\u2019 inputs that do not meet this standard.\u00a0 This is evidenced by phenomenon such as banner blindness, where people actively make an effort to ignore advertising they view while browsing online.<\/p>\n
Understanding how the human mind works and how to attract and hold the attention of your audience will enable you to create user experiences that out-perform the competition and please your users at the same time.\u00a0 You can empower them to get access to the information they need quickly and easily and ultimately complete their tasks with as little wasted time as possible.<\/p>\n
Now let\u2019s take a look at some specific techniques that use knowledge of how the mind works in order to grab people\u2019s attention and hold it long enough to deliver your message:<\/p>\n
A good way to think of attention is like it was a currency.\u00a0 People value their time and cognitive power, and are stingy about spending it on low-value information.\u00a0 In order to motivate them to spend their attention on your message, you need to understand how to generate that initial spark of interest.<\/p>\n
One of the most effective techniques for doing this is incorporating movement into your designs, such as animation.\u00a0 This reason this works is because of peripheral vision.\u00a0 We evolved this ability to help us scan our environment for potential dangers, and consequently our eyes and attention are powerfully drawn to movement.<\/p>\n
Another good technique is incorporating human faces into your content \u2013 particularly those which look directly at the viewer.\u00a0 We have also evolved to recognize the faces of other people, which instantly draw and hold our attention.\u00a0 Check out our full article on\u00a0How Human Faces Affect User Experience in Web Design<\/em><\/a>\u00a0for more information.<\/p>\n You can also consider specific colors for particular parts of your messaging; your calls-to-action can really be made to stand out by using especially vivid coloring.\u00a0 Even manipulation of the text itself is fair game.\u00a0\u00a0Simply bolding specific information<\/strong>\u00a0will make it stand out to readers, as illustrated by this paragraph.<\/p>\n There are simpler visual techniques for grabbing attention as well, such as the use of bright colors, large images, and other elements which really pop out to the viewer.\u00a0 One quick test you can perform on your content is the squint test.\u00a0 To do this simply view your pages normally, then squint your eyes until you can no longer make out the text itself.\u00a0 This should cause the elements which visually stand out to really pop, making them easily recognizable for you.<\/p>\n The biggest takeaway from all this is that people are really only able to pay attention to and process one singular piece of information at a time.\u00a0 They will often scan their environment until something grabs their attention.\u00a0 These techniques are designed to activate those impulses, enabling you to capture and direct their attention in a specific fashion.<\/p>\n In a very real sense, the so-called \u2018reptile\u2019 portion of your brain has evolved to perform one very specific function.\u00a0 That being to constantly scan your environment and evaluate everything you see as to its potential as a food source, mate, or potential danger.\u00a0 Can you eat it?\u00a0 Can you mate with it?\u00a0 Can it kill you?\u00a0 Answering these questions is the full-time job of a substantial portion of your unconscious mind, and tapping into these instincts can be a powerful method of gaining instant attention.<\/p>\n Delicious food imagery can activate these impulses \u2013 have you ever seen a restaurant ad that literally left your mouth watering?\u00a0 These types of ads help us associate positive experiences with these products, and can be extraordinarily powerful.<\/p>\n Some of the best-known techniques used by ads that tap into these primal urges are images of attractive people of the opposite sex (see every beer commercial ever).<\/p>\n Danger is another powerful, primal impulse which can be used to capture peoples\u2019 attention.\u00a0 The danger need not be physical or immediate in nature; you will frequently see this technique used to engage people through hypothetical examples or reverse psychology.\u00a0 Put simply, the shock factor works wonders when it comes to engaging the primal response to danger.<\/p>\n However, not all businesses are able to leverage these primal urges effectively.\u00a0 In some contexts, they simply aren\u2019t appropriate, and in others they don\u2019t make much sense.\u00a0 Business in the Food, Entertainment, Hospitality, Tourism, or Travel niches should be able to easily find ways to use these techniques.\u00a0 Those selling office products or accounting services may have a more difficult time of it.\u00a0 Ultimately, just be mindful of the products you are selling as well as your target demographics, and only use these powerful techniques when it makes sense given your audience.<\/p>\n Another very effective technique for capturing attention is by creating emotions in your audience.\u00a0 By evoking emotions, you open the minds of your audience, and engage their willingness to explore and learn.<\/p>\n This technique works equally well with both positive and negative emotional responses.\u00a0 By creating positive emotions in your audience, you place them in a receptive state where they are likely to pay attention and create positive mental associations with your product.\u00a0 By using negative emotions, you can tap into the primal urges discussed earlier, also engaging their attention.<\/p>\n One of the best ways to create powerful emotional responses is through the use of imaging and visuals.\u00a0 Every aspect of these visuals can be tweaked to produce the desired effect, from the subject, to the tone and mood, and even the color scheme.\u00a0 All of these elements are important to the final \u2018framing\u2019, or mindset, the image is intended to produce.<\/p>\n Video has the potential to be even more powerful than still imagery.\u00a0 All videos incorporate motion, which naturally captures the human eye as discussed above.\u00a0 Additionally, you can leverage the power of music, sound, and voice to produce additional layers of emotional response still imagery cannot reproduce.\u00a0 The more sensory inputs you can work with, the greater the potential for creating deeper emotional states in your audience.<\/p>\n Storytelling is another technique you should utilize.\u00a0 It dovetails closely with evoking emotion.\u00a0 In one sense, images and videos are primitive stories; what makes them truly engaging is the total narrative they create in your mind rather than the individual components of the visual.\u00a0 Apply this same thinking to your digital communications.\u00a0 It should tell its own story, clearly and consistently across the multiple channels you use to communicate with your audience.<\/p>\n People only pay real attention to salient cues, while disregarding substantial amounts of information regarded as trivial.\u00a0 .\u00a0 How do you identify which type to purchase?\u00a0 If you\u2019re like most people, you rely on some of the more obvious and contrasting characteristics of the packaging, such as its size or color, rather than the actual words on the boxes.\u00a0 In fact, it is highly likely that you cannot even recall most of the words on your toothpaste packaging, despite having seen dozens or hundreds of tubes of the stuff.\u00a0 People simply do not pay attention to information irrelevant to them.<\/p>\n Instead, they reserve their cognitive ability for topics actually important to them.\u00a0 For marketers, this leads to one inescapable conclusion: you need to do research.\u00a0 Understanding your end user, who they are, and their pain points is what enables you to create salient cues to use when designing your user experience.\u00a0 These cues will actually resonate with them, triggering them to pay close attention rather than dismissing your message as trivial, unimportant background noise.\u00a0 You can begin this process through the\u00a0creation of buyer personas<\/a>.\u00a0 It is important to later follow up this process with<\/p>\n Once you have a full understanding of what cues will prove salient to your audience, here are four specific techniques you can use to create them:<\/p>\n Unfortunately, salient cues by themselves are not usually enough to capture attention.\u00a0 The cues are really only the pieces of information that you know your audience will find most important; there is nothing inherently attention-grabbing about them.<\/p>\n That means for best results, you typically want to combine salient cues with the techniques we discussed earlier – movement, faces, colors, primal urges, etc., to actually intrigue them.\u00a0 Identify the salient cues, then use the other psychological techniques to really make them stand out in the minds of your audience.<\/p>\n Demonstrating contrast is another effective technique for capturing attention.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve ever seen any weight loss or fitness ads featuring \u2018Before\u2019 and \u2018After\u2019 shots, you have seen the principle of contrast at work.<\/p>\n Other popular formulations of the concept include comparing \u2018Good\u2019 and \u2018Bad\u2019, \u2018Do\u2019s\u2019 versus \u2018Don\u2019t\u2019s\u2019, \u2018Risky\u2019 versus \u2018Safe\u2019 or similar formulations.\u00a0 Basically anything that lets you compare and contrast polar opposites will work.<\/p>\n The reason contrast is such a powerful concept again relies on the evolutionary paths our brains have taken.\u00a0 Much like the eye is naturally drawn to movement, the mind naturally pays more attention to things which are in contrast with either their environment, or to information previously presented.<\/p>\n As we have discussed previously, people want to make good decisions, avoid bad decisions, and see progress moving forward; utilizing the power of comparison through contrast can help to create a powerful story that will resonate with your audience.<\/p>\n The most important element in capturing people\u2019s attention is ensuring that the information you are trying to present them is of real and honest value.\u00a0 Once you have ensured that you can pass that salience test, then you can deploy some of the additional techniques we have discussed to put emphasis on it and really make it stand out.<\/p>\n Users will appreciate this approach, because it delivers a positive experience for them.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got information that is important to them, you make it easy for them to find, and you empower them to get their business done with minimal hassle.<\/p>\n What they don\u2019t like is being tricked or manipulated; if you use these techniques to direct people towards information they do not value, they will fight back against this negative user experience by tuning out your message entirely.\u00a0 There is no faster path to losing your credibility and trust than this.<\/p>\n However, no matter how successful you are in capturing the initial interest of your audience that is only half the battle you face.\u00a0 In Part II of this series we will investigate specific techniques that can be used to keep your audience focused on your messaging and boost their attention span.<\/p>\nBolding & Colors<\/h3>\n
Squint Test<\/h3>\n
2. Tap Into Primal Urges<\/h2>\n
Food<\/h3>\n
Sex<\/h3>\n
Danger<\/h3>\n
3. Harness the Power of Emotion & Storytelling<\/h2>\n
Emotion Motivates Action<\/h3>\n
Incorporate as Many Senses as Possible<\/h3>\n
People Follow Narratives<\/h3>\n
4. Provide Your Audience Salient Information<\/h2>\n
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5. Leverage the Power of Contrast<\/h2>\n
Helping Your Audience Help Themselves<\/h2>\n