Have you heard of the term Pattern “F” reading before? If you haven’t, then it’s definitely something you’ll want to consider when creating future articles. At first glance, the term appears like an obscure personality test result, but pattern “F” quite literally means to prioritise your key content in the shape of the letter F. Sceptical? Read on to find out how the letter “F” can help you optimise your writing and raise content retention amongst readers!
It’s all about eyeball movement
Pattern “F” was coined by Jakob Nielsen and his team at Nielsen Norman Group, reports Entrepreneur. Specialising in computer user interfaces and user experiences, the company had performed extensive research on eye tracking and audience behaviours when reading things online. Interestingly, they found that people rarely read an article word-for-word.
Instead, readers had developed a peculiar habit:
1. They went horizontally across the header and first paragraph as usual
2. Then skimmed vertically along the left margin
3. As they went down, the content on the left half of the page was favoured over the right – the right sometimes being completely ignored
Put the three shapes together and you have a heat map distribution with the hottest sections resembling the letter F (or a deformed ladder if there are many horizontal sub-branches). Knowing people’s reading habits, it makes sense that we try to fit the most important details of an article within this heat map.
Copywriting “F”inesse
It’s one thing to write concisely, but how do we do so while also writing within the confines of the pattern “F”?
Content placement planning with captivating headlines and subheads
Knowing that the first paragraph (your main argument) and the first line of subsequent paragraphs (your supporting points) have the highest readership, you want to ensure that readers can establish a general idea of your article from these sections alone.
Take advantage of reader’s curiosity and be creative with your titles. Whichever way you do it, be sure that the body copy answers what the headline and subheads are alluding to – otherwise you’d be clickbait scamming your readers and they’d likely leave your site for good!
Shorten content wherever possible
It’s rare for modern articles to have paragraphs that go beyond seven lines, which is why it’s essential that you are able to write concisely to limit unnecessary words.
Be liberal with spacing and paragraph breaks
After you’re done trimming words, look for logical places where you can start a new paragraph – it could be a supporting point, a quote, an example or a point you want to emphasise. Nowadays, it’s not unusual to find paragraphs with only one sentence!
Just like this.
Empty space is great for giving copy a clean and uncluttered look – it also maximises the chances of your copy being read by readers who are easily dissuaded by big blocks of text.
Be clever with text formatting and visual hierarchy
Some people skim through the pattern “F” regions to look for keywords or phrases that draw their attention. Bolds, italics, underlines or different sized subheadings are very handy for emphasising important points or power words.
What are power words? They are words that create a psychological or emotional response – like ridiculous, catastrophe or fortune. Although conciseness dictates that we use simple words whenever possible, having power words sprinkled across your content (and further emphasised with text formatting), really does help to draw attention to that particular point.
However, use formatting and power words sparingly, or they can quickly lead to an overcrowded and muddled page!
For the most part, copywriting hierarchy entails reading flow, typography and white space usage. “Visual hierarchy is the principle of arranging elements to show their order of importance,” explains the Interaction Design Foundation. “When encountering an interface, users react extremely fast (in milliseconds), developing gut feelings about whether to stay or leave.”
An ill-conceived visual hierarchy, for example one that breaks the norm of reading from left to right and top to bottom, will be received poorly. If you were on a page that was distorted and unfriendly to navigate, would you bother staying?
Lastly, keep typography and sizing consistent. If you use italicised Times New Roman 14 for a subhead, it’s a design sin to switch to Arial 16 in the next.
Be kind to mobile users
Don’t neglect your audiences on mobile devices! According to analytics from Perficient, 68 percent of global visitors to websites (from a pool of 30.2 trillion clicks) were made on mobile devices. Given that mobile screens are smaller and have different scaling ratios, you need to make sure that your published content is friendly to view across both computer and mobile screens.
This of course depends on your server host or web platform. Simply check the article from your phone to see what it looks like first. If you have to zoom in to read the text or drag the screen to the right to read hidden text, your page is not optimised for mobile. Consult a web developer or consider an auto-adjusting website builder like Squarespace or WordPress.
Adapting your writing to fit pattern “F” readership may sound like a complicated task, but it’s really straightforward when you think about the logic behind it. Simply consider how you’d like a page to be read and apply your preferences to how you write. If you’re engaged by what you read, chances are others will be too!