Effective Communication of Pathology Results to Requesting Practitioners and Consumers

What Information Participants Examined (Attention)

Page last updated: 14 May 2013

Participants examined each report for approximately five minutes. They consistently looked at the left-hand side first, initially focusing on the graph. On average, the graph was viewed for 26 seconds. The photograph of the participant, in most cases, was the next item studied (6.3 seconds). Participants then viewed the test results, the report title, the description of the blood test, and the risk profile material. Participants viewed the test results for around 27 seconds, the text of eye damage risk for around 28 seconds, the text of gum disease risk for around 20 seconds and the text of stroke risk for around 33 seconds. The implication of this sequence is that attention is naturally attracted to a graphical data display, and will spend a considerable amount of time studying that data.