Tunnel Vision and Selective Attention
Unravel the intriguing phenomena of Tunnel Vision and Selective Attention. Explore how these cognitive processes shape our perception and influence our daily interactions. Delve into the science behind these concepts and their profound impact on our understanding of the world.
Summary: Users don’t see stuff that’s right on the screen
Selective attention makes people overlook things outside their focus of interest
- One example of this occurred when a user tried to find out when Westfield entered the U.K. market and carefully stepped through the timeline in the company’s history section.
- The year 2000 is prominent in the upper right-hand corner of the timeline, but the user couldn’t see it because of tunnel vision
Put Related Items Next to Each Other
The solution to tunnel vision usability problems is to position related items close together
- This design is also better for accessibility
- Low-vision users who employ a screen magnifier are much more likely to understand the information when it’s all in one place
Selective Attention
Selective attention is really a survival instinct; if people had to pay attention to all stimuli in the environment, they’d never get anything done.
- Web page designers don’t have the same problem. They know which information is important and thus focus on it when analyzing the layout.