I’ve just come across an eye tracking study about email newsletters that says we may be reading the results of these studies the wrong way, and that there are some surprising differences in how different audiences read web pages.
If you are not familiar with eyetracking, it is a verry sophisticated way of seeing how people read computer screens, how long their gaze lingers in certain areas and how much of the screen is covered.

The shot below is of a typical set of Google search results, from a study by Enquiro.

The red patches show where the user looked at the screen, showing where the most attention was given.

This corresponds well with what we know about where the clicks on Google search results occure, nmely that positions 1-3 get the lions share of the action.

All, well and good when you are looking for an immediate action, but what about email newsletters where you are often trying to get your readers to retain information about you long after they have shut down their PC.

Below is the results of a test on 2 different emails with essentially the same information. The second is after the newsletter was rewritten to allow the reader to skim read more content.

At first sight the test looks like a disaster with very little time spent on any section of the newsletter, but analysis later on showed that the readers of the right hand newsletter retained 34% more information.

So what? The study shows that you need to think about what you are trying to get your audience to do, and to spend time editing your content to elicit the right response. Also, that complex tools like eye tracking need experts that understand the results or you could be headed in the wrong direction.