Jakob Nielsen’s recent eye tracking study contains a lot of interesting data, but none more unusual than the unexpected discovery of excessive fixation on crotches by the males in his sample.
Yep, you read that right. Crotches.
Although both men and women look at the image of George Brett when directed to find out information about his sport and position, men tend to focus on private anatomy as well as the face. For the women, the face is the only place they viewed.
Coyne [the Nielsen/Norman Group Director of Research] adds that this difference doesn’t just occur with images of people. Men tend to fixate more on areas of private anatomy on animals as well, as evidenced when users were directed to browse the American Kennel Club site.
Oy. Well, that’s kinda humiliating. Gives new meaning to “know your audience,” I guess.
Oh, and did anyone else notice that Coyne went from cognitive function to George Brett to implied bestiality in just two paragraphs? Holy cow that was awesome.
As a bonus exercise, now that I’ve used the “b- word” in a monkeyPi post, we shall sit back, make some popcorn, and watch the Google search strings pour in.
