What Lists Can Teach Us about Web Design and Blogging

Photo: Mike 23

Ever wonder why lists are so popular on the internet? Theres no shortage of them on the pages of social bookmarking sites like digg, reddit and even del.icio.us. Lists organize information at a glance, changing our perception and hooking us into reading more. The following article explains how manipulating the eye’s focus can improve our web designs as well as our blogs.

The Secret Power of Lists

We click on the links out of a combination of procrastination and nostalgia (who doesn’t want to remember the 1980’s top fashions). Okay, so maybe its mostly out of procrastination. But what keeps us there is something less obvious.

The human eye scans the page in a seemingly haphazard pattern, jumping from one item to the next. Although its a subconscious act occurring on a scale of milliseconds, it has a large role in determining whether we continue to read an article or move on.

So what makes lists special? Lists organize and highlight pertinent information at a glance. Okay, I admit that’s a no-brainer statement. But its the crucial component behind the popularity of lists. The scanning eye doesn’t have time to digest everything on the page. By organizing the information, lists have a greater chance of catching the eye (and further interest) than a long expanse of similar sized paragraphs.

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