Peripheral Blindness
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On Priorities
Ok, sorry. I know you're probably upset. This effect is incredibly annoying. I know.
But hey, it does keep your eyes on the page! That's kind of the point. As people, we can't focus on everything at once, so we prioritize. Things that exist in our periphery are less relevant to us, and are thus often ignored.
This is true both in our eyeballs and in the content we consume. We can't read every word on the page at once, so we start at the top left and scan through each line until it breaks, after which we start again at the left side of the next line.
Positioning is Everything
This means that the information that exists front and center is super important to us. It's what we're most likely to read and remember. Static content that sits at the edges of our vision is prime to be ignored.
Some features of a page buck this trend, though. Smart uses of color can be very effective at drawing attention to important information without being overly intrusive. Same goes for font weight. Bolding text to draw attention to it may as well be the oldest trick in the book.
Motion is King
But motion topples all. Humans have evolved to notice movement in our periphery as a mechanism to help us hunt and avoid predators. Introducing a springy animation can alert a user to the prescence of something important, as demonstrated countless times on this website. Its power is undeniable.