Push Attention on Calls to Action

Attention is persuasive.

Users often blame their attention on desire: Hmm, why do I keep staring at this button? I must want to click it.

That means you can persuade users by increasing the saliency of a call to action. Even a simple tweak, like adding line breaks to a final sentence:

Try capturing 100% of attention instead of a mere fraction.

How to Apply

• Visual Contrast. Desaturate nearby images.
• Single Action. Secondary actions should be less salient (e.g., transparent button).
• Arrows. Be careful with images of people. Humans instinctively grab attention, so they can steal attention away from a CTA even if you orient the body and eye gaze toward it. Arrows might be more effective because they don't harbor attention on themselves (Ristic & Kingstone, 2006).
• Hide Exit Links. Remove header and footer links in a funnel sequence.
• Animations. Cluttered interfaces need to pull attention more forcefully (e.g., button shimmer).
• CTAs on the Right. Most people are right-handed, so they prefer interacting with elements on the right (Casasanto & Chrysikou, 2011). And I confirmed this effect in a study: Right-handed people were more likely to click a button on the right.
• Right-Facing Images. Did you notice that I flipped the musician to face right? Time is a horizontal spectrum that unfolds from left to right (assuming you read from left to right). Therefore, right-facing images nudge people toward future actions, whereas left-facing images can fixate their attention toward the past (Zhang et al., 2019).

• Casasanto, D., & Chrysikou, E. G. (2011). When left is “right” motor fluency shapes abstract concepts. Psychological science, 22(4), 419-422.
• Ristic, J., & Kingstone, A. (2006). Attention to arrows: Pointing to a new direction. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology, 59(11), 1921-1930.
• Zhang, Y., Kwak, H., Jeong, H., & Puzakova, M. (2019). Facing the “right” side? The effect of product facing direction. Journal of Advertising, 48(2), 153-166.