Overview

Twitter first launched a selected list of twenty one brand pages in December. Most were brands that were already distributing commercial content via Twitter, but the new brand page format provides a much anticipated point of difference between corporate and personal accounts. The question is how does each brand rate in terms of new, interesting, compelling and provocative content? Is audience engagement high? What kind of layout and content works best?

Using innovative eyetracking technology, the consumer research and usability experts at SimpleUsability conducted the first piece of research of its kind to find out.

The team observed users looking at the layouts and features of four business pages: Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Staples and HP. By recording eye movements and actions online, they could see exactly what elements each user engaged with, was drawn to and distracted by. Importantly, the company then worked with the subjects to try and understand the decisions they took, replaying their activity to users, showing where and what they looked at and asking appropriate questions to determine their behaviour and choices.

First impressions

Users were drawn to different sections of the branded pages depending on the features each employed. All pages received initial attention on the section of the page that contained imagery. Generally this was the promoted tweet, but on the Staples page the promoted tweet did not contain any visual elements so the header image initially received more attention. (more…)