Most of us are writers, one way or another. We share our thoughts in blogs and ebooks. And you may have noticed that I have been experimenting recently with emphasizing certain parts of my posts, breaking up longer texts in chapters, and playing around with various formats.

I am doing this to test the so-called F-Shaped pattern of reading. This is a description of how people read online. It was first identified in 2006 by the Nielsen Norman Group. They recently published an update, clarifying that:

1. Scanning on the web does not always take the shape of an F. There are other common scanning patterns too.
2. The F-pattern can be bad for users and businesses.
3. Good design can prevent F-shape scanning.

Let’s examine all this in detail, shall we?

What Is The F-Shaped Pattern?

Image: Nielsen Normal Group

As you can see for the heatmap above, people’s eyes focus on certain…