Designing effective interfaces

Chapter 10. Layout: The Axis of Interaction

One of the most common questions in UX design is “Should the button be on the left or the right?” Well, it depends, actually. It depends on where you have created visual “edges.”

This idea is deceptively simple.

Human attention is very limited. We can only focus on one thing at a time, like a squirrel, or Duck Dynasty, or a skimpy swimsuit. So while we’re focusing on one chunk of content, the other chunks of content effectively become invisible.

Fun Fact

In photos of a man and woman in skimpy swimsuits, eye-tracking studies show that women will look at the woman’s breasts more than men, and men will look at the man’s crotch more than women. It’s not about being sexy, it’s about checking out the competition in nature.

Find the Edges

In every design, you will use the visual principles you learned in this course. When you step back and look at your layout, you will notice that you have created “lines” or “edges” or “blocks” everywhere.

They might be the aligned edge of the text, or your images, or groups of things in a row. Each of those edges is an Axis of Interaction. Your eyes will follow an Axis until it is interrupted or until it ends. Your user’s attention is almost always focused on an Axis of Interaction, and when they stop focusing there, they will hop to the next Axis of Interaction.

Therefore, if you want people to click something, put it on (or near) an Axis of Interaction. If you don’t want them to click it, put it somewhere else. The ...