Editing Banner blindness (section)

=== Human behavior ===

==== User goals ====
When searching for specific information on a website, users focus only on the parts of the page where they expect that information will be, e.g. small text and hyperlinks.<ref name=":9">Pagendarm, M.; Schaumburg, H. (2001). [https://journals.tdl.org/jodi/index.php/jodi/article/view/36/38 "Why Are Users Banner-Blind? The Impact of Navigation Style on the Perception of Web Banners"]. ''Journal of Digital Information''. '''2''' (1).</ref> A 2011 study investigated via eye-tracking analysis whether users avoided looking at ads inserted on a non-search website, and whether they retained ad content in memory. The study found that most participants fixated (looked at) ads at least once during their website visit.<ref>Hervet, G.; Guerard, K.; Tremblay, S.; Chtourou, M. S. (2011). "Is Banner Blindness Genuine? Eye Tracking Internet Text Advertising". ''Applied Cognitive Psychology''. '''25''' (5): 708–716. [[Digital object identifier|doi]]:[[doi:10.1002/acp.1742|10.1002/acp.1742]].</ref> When a viewer is working on a task, ads may cause a disturbance, eventually leading to ad avoidance. If a user wants to find something on the web page and ads disrupt or delay their search, they will try to avoid the source of interference.<ref name=":5" />

==== Clutter aversion ====
A higher than expected number of advertisements may cause a user to view the page as cluttered.<ref name=":6">Cho, C. H., & as-, U. O. T. A. A. I. A. (2004). Why do people avoid advertising on the internet?. ''Journal of advertising'', ''33''(4), 89-97.</ref> The number of adverts and annoyances on a webpage contribute to this perception of clutter.<ref name=":5" /> As users can concentrate on only one stimulus at a time, having too many objects in their field of vision causes them to lose focus.<ref>Djamasbi, S., Hall-Phillips, A., & Yang, R. R. (2013). An Examination of Ads and Viewing Behavior: An Eye Tracking Study on Desktop and Mobile Devices.</ref> This contributes to behaviors such as ad avoidance or banner blindness.

==== Website familiarity ====
[[File:Standard web banner ad sizes.svg|thumb|upright=1.4|Standard web banner ad sizes circa 2009]]As a user becomes familiar with a webpage, they learn where to expect content, and where to expect adverts, and learn to ignore banner ads without looking at them.<ref name=":5">[null Drèze, X., & Hussherr, F. X. (2003). Internet advertising: Is anybody watching?.&nbsp;''Journal of interactive marketing'',&nbsp;''17''(4), 8-23.]</ref> [[Usability testing|Usability tests]] that compared the perception of banners between subjects searching for specific information and subjects aimlessly browsing seem to support this theory.<ref name=":9" /> A 2014 eye-tracking study examined how right-side images (in contrast to [[plain text]]) in Google AdWords affect users' visual behavior. The analysis concludes that the appearance of images does not change user interaction with ads.<ref>Ortiz-Chaves, L.; et al. (2014). "AdWords, images, and banner blindness: an eye-tracking study". ''El Profesional de la Información''. '''23''' (3): 279–287. [[Digital object identifier|doi]]:[[doi:10.3145/epi.2014.may.08|10.3145/epi.2014.may.08]].</ref>

==== Brand recognition ====
If a user is already aware of a brand, viewing an ad banner for that brand would reconfirm their existing attitudes towards it, whether positive or negative. A banner ad may only leave a positive impression in the viewer if they already have a positive perception of the brand. Similarly, someone seeing an ad for a brand they have a negative perception of may further dissuade them from buying from that brand.

If viewers have a neutral or no opinion about a brand, then a banner ad for that brand could leave a positive impression, due to the [[mere-exposure effect]]: A tendency to develop a preference for something due to familiarity.<ref>Kindermann, H. (2016, July). A Short-Term Twofold Impact on Banner Ads. In ''International Conference on HCI in Business, Government and Organizations''(pp. 417-426). Springer International Publishing.</ref>