BuzzFeed. Squirrels. Popups. Taylor Swift in a Tesla tickling tuna.
Do I have your attention?
Probably not, because so many darn things are competing for it at the exact same time. (Like that email notification that just popped up in the corner of your screen. Don’t look at it! It’ll still be there in a minute, I promise.)
This is the challenge marketers are faced with everyday and that Unbounce co-founder Oli Gardner tackles head on in his brand new 68-page masterpiece, Attention-Driven Design: 23 Visual Principles For Designing More Persuasive Landing Pages.
Oli has been touring the world for the last 18 months, spreading the gospel about how to design amazing marketing experiences that both delight and convert. We finally persuaded him to sit down and put his latest research, insights and hilarious ramblings into writing.
You won’t believe what happened next.
Spoiler alert: He wrote a brilliant ebook. Download it below to see for yourself. It’s totally free and will make you a better human being. Or at least a better marketer and designer.
You’ll learn:
- Why Oli has a love/hate relationship with BuzzFeed
- What happened when he put his own mug next to a landing page CTA (hint: it was a humbling experience)
- How to design a page with a perfect Attention Ratio (and when you might want to bend the rules)
- What John and Yoko can teach you about attention-driven design
- Why squirrels are jerks. Really, they are.
Gardner begins this ebook by discussing three areas of attention that should be focused on: capturing/ grabbing attention, maintaining/ holding attention, and focusing attention. Gardner gives the readers some background by referencing “a poisonous trait plaguing the marketing community”, known as Horror Vacui, or “fear of empty space”. Gardner continues by stating that this poisonous trait “leads to an obsessive desire to fill every speck of nothing, with something”. Gardner uses additional unbiased evidence by commenting on the parallel of the Horror Vacui curse and people’s short attention spans online. Gardner’s use of factual evidence provides readers with knowledgeable background on the issue the ebook addresses.
ReplyDeleteThe ebook continues by delving into the topic of attention ratio. Gardner defines attention ratio as being “the ratio of the number of things you can do on a given page, to the number of things you should be doing”. He then continues by arguing that the most effective attention ratio should be 1:1. Gardner supports this claim with visual representations and case studies. For example, Gardner includes visuals of website wireframes- one representing an attention ratio of 57:1 and the other representing an attention ratio of 1:1. I found this evidence to be very effective and useful as it clearly distinguished the difference between the two attention ratios while also supporting Gardners claim of 1:1 attention ratio being the most beneficial. Gardner also includes a case study which compared ebook downloads on a landing page with an attention ratio of 10:1 and a landing page with a ratio of 1:1. The case study found that the landing page with the attention ratio of 1:1 resulted in 31% more ebook downloads. This evidence further supports Gardner’s claim.
The rest of Gardner’s ebook discusses 23 principles of attention- driven design, to which he provides visuals and facts to support his claims. Gardner’s intention with this ebook was to provide digital marketers with fundamentals that will maximize the amount of attention received. I believe that Gardner fulfilled this objective by reaching the audience and including several fundamentals along with factual evidence/ case studies that support these claims. I enjoyed this ebook, as it was engaging and provided readers with insight on the topic of digital marketing. I would definitely recommend this to anyone with an interest or career in digital marketing.