I keep noticing that in non ad cluttered UIs and searches my eyes automatically go to the secondary information sometimes making me miss the primary information.
Someone will say “click on “name” element” and I’ll search for it but miss it even though it’s the most “eye catching” thing. Or I find I open the link a few down from the top one even if it’s not sponsored.
The mental filter to find good information hiding in a sea of dominant splashy advertisements has resulted in a reduction in my performance in processing well meaning eye catching designs meant to guide me to useful information.
Has anyone else experienced this?
I never thought about this being caused by ads, but, maybe.
It goes beyond reading too. When I worked retail, we had a saying, “when you can’t find something, it’s right in front of you.” We would just look over the item we were searching for because we were looking everywhere but directly in front of us
I lost my hairbrush, couldn’t find it, gave up and used a comb. Three days later, It was right there on my nightstand.
I also lost my keys once for five days, (I had a spare set thankfully). They were on top of a cabinet.
All the damn time. It’s “funny” but honestly, so frustrating I’m like this. If I can’t find something, best to just wait, it’ll appear eventually.
I often joke to my wife: “I can’t find X anywhere! Give me something else to start looking for so I can find them!”