Reply-to: "Eric Meyer" 
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References:  from Eric Meyer at "Aug 19, 98 12:10:36 pm"
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At 13:22 on 19 Aug 98, cfm@maine.com  wrote in part:

> Reason number 3 espoused, AFIAK at the www.useit.com site, is that
> a text ad is `specific' while the image is not.  One knows that if
> you click on a link called `current weather' you are likely to get
> that. One fears to click on a link of a dark looming cloud because
> you don't know where it goes.  That feels real right to me. 

That might or might not be true, under certain circumstances -- a
topic for a completely discussion. Such concerns were taken out of
the study I cited by using only text-only GIF banners vs. the exact
same text presented in HTML. Controlling variables is at the heart of 
the scientific method.

If these had not been controlled, the question of whether an image 
per se increases or decreases interest is more a factor of how 
personally involved or uninvolved the reader is. The less a person 
feels personally affected by something -- that is, the less he or she 
feels as if there is some personal control that he or she may exert 
over that area or vice versa -- the more likely this person becomes 
to look at analog representations such as images, particularly if 
they are merely vivid and not terribly telling. Simpler images that 
serve to hierarchically present information in clean, utilitarian 
style are more likely to be used by readers with greater personal 
involvement. There appears to be absolutely no scrutinizable evidence 
of images per se having advantages or disadvantages without 
considering these other things that define the image.


              ERIC K. MEYER - meyer@newslink.org
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