SoylentNews

canopic jug [soylentnews.org] writes:

Evidence-based usability expert, Jakob Nielsen, writes that increased advertising caused a 2.8% drop in use of an Internet service and that the full magnitude of the lost business was only clear after a full year. He and his group have long documented that advertising in online media carries a cost in terms of usability. The three main points are the following:

• "Users find many online advertising techniques highly annoying — that attitude has remained constant since we first reported it in 2004."
• "Because online ads are so irritating, users have evolved banner blindness as a defense mechanism to reduce this annoyance. (Also a finding that has remained true for decades, meaning that it’s not likely to change anytime soon.)"
• "Even worse (from a web-design perspective), ads poison the well for honest designers seeking to boost the visual design of useful page elements: anything with an overly fancy look may be unjustly taken for an ad and also ignored by users."

From : Annoying Online Ads Do Cost Business [nngroup.com].

Original Submission