My Web Page Hierarchy presentation at Webstock 2008 walked through how people parse Web pages and the implications of this behavior for designers. Specifically, using the principles of visual hierarchy to communicate key information about the purpose and use of Web applications.
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Web Page Hierarchy (3.1 MB PDF)
Official Description
When a potential customer makes it to one of your Web application's pages, what will they do? Do you want them to sign up, contribute their knowledge, make a purchase, dive deeper into your content? Clearly, these are decisions you don't want to leave up to chance.
In this session, Luke will outline the way people naturally scan Web pages and explain how you can guide users through key content and actions using visual hierarchy to construct meaningful, prioritized page layouts. You'll be taken through several before and after examples with explanations of how a page's content was prioritized, why, and how that priority is being communicated to users so they don't need to rely on chance to use your Web application.