By Manuelita Beck — University of New Mexico

Text may play a more important role than graphics in attracting eyeballs to news sites, according to results of a study on viewer behavior presented in an ONA panel discussion.

Participants in the panel, titled "Extreme Makeover: How to make your site gorgeous, friendly and popular," talked about how viewers see Web sites, drawing on results of Eyetrack III, a study that analyzed what people actually look at on the screen.

It helps to learn anything you can learn about how readers use a site because of the many variables that come into play, said Kinsey Wilson, panel moderator and editor in chief of USATODAY.com, after the panel.

"It's a huge jigsaw puzzle," he said. "There's no single device that's going to give you the holy grail, but it can help you get over your own preconceptions."

Project director Laura Ruel, a professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, said the Eyetrack III study can help journalists get into their readers' heads.

"What you say you do and what you do are two different things," she said.

The study tracked the eye movements of participants through a camera in the computer monitor's base while they viewed sample news Web sites.

The study found that text, not photographs, is the main point of entry for readers, who are drawn to dominant headlines. However, people tend to only look at the first two or three words of a headline or story blurb underneath the headline.

Large photographs, especially if they feature faces, also draw eyes. However, small photos are rarely looked at.

"We run thumbnail-size photos on our site," said Denise Trabona, art director at MSNBC.com.

Trabona said she will think over some of her site's practices based on the Eyetrack III findings.

The other two panelists discussed how journalists can conduct usability research with readers.

Kevin Riley, DaytonDailyNews.com's general manager, presented a case study of his site's redesign process.

It showed some differences between print and online journalism, he said. For example, users didn't like the print edition's names for its classified sections, such as 'wheels' for car listings.

"In print, we're used to giving people what we want," Riley said.

Online news sites must instead give readers what they want, he said.

Usability research doesn't have to be difficult, said Hyde Post, editorial director at AJC.com. It can be done with as few as five people, and participants can be pulled from lists of registered site users.

But radical redesigns need bigger tests such as those performed by the research firm Vividence, Riley said.

"It's good for finding things, but not for proving them," he said.

Riley said called audience research "one of the most painful experiences" to go through. Despite working hard to make a site easily usable, it can be difficult for test users to find things, he said.

Trabona, who has done usability studies in the past, agreed.

"Sometimes you're thinking to yourself, 'It's right there, it's right there,'" Trabona said.

In her experience, people take usability studies take it to heart, she said, but some can take it too far.

"I think you have to be careful about your takeaways and make sure you're not overreacting," Trabona said.