One red hot web tool! Feng-GUI

 

One of the decisions a webmaster and designer faces is their website’s page layout. Web gurus agree that if you plan to monetize your site, the proper placement of ads can mean the difference between making a bundle or a pittance. What they don’t agree on is where exactly “the proper placement” would be. How’s a guy to know the best, most effective place to put them then?

A website called Feng-GUI may give you some excellent clues about that. Described fully as Feng Shui for Graphic User Interfaces, this site’s dazzling program simulates what happens when someone physically views your webpage. Want a more technical explanation?

“The Feng-GUI heatmap is a composition of several algorithms from neuro-science studies of Feature integration theory, Salience, Visual Attention, eye-tracking sessions, perception and cognition of humans. Or in English: “What people are looking at?” Their words, not mine.

Sounds cool! How do I get one?

Easy! You simply upload a screenshot (or any jpg, png, bm or gif under 5MB) to their site. The program reviews your picture. It selects which parts the human eye would be drawn to and what’s holding the visitor’s interest longest. A path detailing where they travel visually from one item to another, and even whether they double back to look at something again (and again) is mapped out with hotspots.

In a few moments, Feng-GUI returns your screenshot complete with a new layer displaying this activity. You can save this full size picture to your computer for closer review. (I’ve just reduced the size here of the picture above for display purposes.)

The next question on your mind before you rush to start chopping and changing your page is probably about its accuracy. You’ll be glad to hear The Feng-GUI team already addressed that on their extensive Help page.

A study comparing how alternative technologies fared against theirs concluded “Feng-GUI attention maps regions of interest reach 70% of similarities to Eye and Mouse Tracking.” I find that impressive indeed.

I’m sure there’s plenty of other ways that Feng-GUI technology can be used apart from ad placement and some brighter person than me will think of them. Please do share those ideas with us if you do come up with anything.

In the meantime, I’d like to say a sincere thanks to everyone involved at Feng-GUI for a first class resource. Thanks guys!

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