Those of you who have visited this site before today know that the theme was quite different. Themes are page designs that provide the number of columns, fonts, colors, headers, footers, and various other page elements.
I had already decided to change the theme because the old one was giving me some widget trouble. I couldn’t easily set up an “Articles” page because that widget just wouldn’t work on the old theme.
I’ve been experimenting with themes because WordPress.org has so many to choose from, and I haven’t really settled on any except on my Debt Free or Bust theme.
I’m on the StomperNet newsletter email list and the list that sends the “Going Natural 2.0″ free video series. Video #3 is a gold mine!
I’m so glad I watched it before I changed any of my themes.
How the human eye works
Our eyes are magnificent structures highly evolved in protecting us from harm and directing us quickly to what we seek.
I’m not going to talk about rods and cones and all that stuff you had in 10th grade biology. I am going to tell how the way our eyes work contributes greatly to what our brains pay attention to.
Our eyes don’t just collect information for the brain to sort out. They actually filter information before it gets to our brains. Our eyes like pictures and maps to guide them along the correct path to what we need quickly and easily.
Our eyes can see two main things:
- fovea - which is the focused zone we see clear, colorful details in and takes up about 2% of our visual field
- periphery - the rest of our visual range, it’s blurred but sees contrast and movement extremely well
Here’s the kicker, what we see in the periphery is important to what our brains pick up as information worth processing. If the periphery is all the same and inanimate, we don’t give it much attention. If it has a lot of contrast and/or movement we pay much more attention to it. The military has known this for ages. That’s why they have camoflagge uniforms and special training to avoid being seen.
Something else about our eyes is they move constantly, even when we’re concentrating on reading or watching something. They are constantly scanning for things we need and want, and for danger that we need to run from or at least stay away from. They are constantly looking for visual cues and maps to guide us.
When we read our eyes are still moving more than we realize, and they become tired from all the movement.
One way to decrease the strain on our eyes is if the writer or designer breaks up information into packets our eyes can collect rapidly and send on to our brains for processing.
Scientists at the StomperNet labs determined that 5200 pixels = 1 eye mile on a computer screen. Reducing the number of pixels we see reduces eye strain and fatigue.
Why theme designs are important
Pages on websites or in books and other reading materials are easier for us to read if they have information set up in packets our eyes can quickly scan.
When information is broken up into bunches with contrasting headings and surrounded by white space, it’s much easier for our eyes to scan and find the information we want more quickly.
We tend to move our eyes about half as much as when pages are too busy with small print, no headings and little contrast. When our eyes are less tired and can locate what we want rapidly we are happy campers. We tend to pay more attention to pages that appeal to the way our eyes work.
More importantly, we tend to ignore what doesn’t appeal to the way our eyes work. Given the immediate choice of reading something that is busy and hard, or something in bunches and easy, we’ll opt for the easy stuff even if it isn’t better because it doesn’t make us so tired.
I also started using more subheadings, white space and indentations when I write posts. I hope it will make it easier for you to scan. Let’s face it, if I can’t get you to scan what I write I don’t have a prayer of getting you to read what I write.
I chose the new theme for this blog based more on contrast and bunching of information than on artwork and other features that appealed more to me in other ways. In the past, I really didn’t look at themes with so much contrast, but now I see how important contrast is. You will see all my sites change to higher contrast and easier reading formats.
I hope you’ll look at the new page and leave me comments about whether you think it’s easier to scan and more readable.
Here’s to being easier on your eyes!
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