The role of local design factors for newspaper reading behaviour – an eye-tracking perspective

Newspaper design is a creative art, and the possibilities to vary design are endless. Basically, newspaper designers judge the value of a designed spread by looking at it themselves and imagining how readers could perceive it or sense what it feels like. Actual feedback on readers perception of the design is very scarce. The only method widely in use is target group interviews. Interviews can cover large samples from a reader population, but readers have only a very limited self-knowledge and memory of their own reading (Helander, Landauer and Prabhu 1997). Also, very few general interview questions are asked. It is unlikely that these can reflect all potentially interesting details and processes that occur during the half hour that Scandinavian readers on average spend with their newspaper.