Web Design: Foveal Vision in Relation to Creating Banners and Logos

Foveal vision is the sharp central vision necessary for humans to read books, watch TV, drive, or browse websites. To optimize creatives such as banners and logos, a quick web related understanding of foveal vision is very useful.

Foveal Vision on the Web

The width of most peoples foveal vision is the width of about five words. The standard logo or ad banner design that fits closest to this size is probably 125 pixels wide. For a 125 pixel wide banner, the standard height is also 125 pixels.

However, the optimal height for a logo or an ad creative is probably a bit shorter than 125 pixels high. This is because readers have a longer horizontal vision than vertical vision. If you think about it, a little more width and a little less height fits the fact that humans have two eyes that are aligned horizontally.

So this would lead us to conclude for the standard web creative, the standard designs of: 120*90, 120*60, 125*125, and 180*150 are the optimal sizes.

Reasoning

If you can focus on one creative and be able to absorb it in a glance without any scanning or eye movement, it becomes easier for you to process the information. Also, many people on websites are simply browsing and anything that doesn’t catch their interest quickly will quickly be ignored. By having a creative that is easily processed, it benefits you immensely.

The rest of my website looks empty now!

Its true that just having an eye catching logo will leave your site looking bare and unprofessional. However, the logo in itself is not your whole website. Don’t skimp on the rest of your site that compliments your main creatives.

A good analogy is that of when you see a dolphin jumping out of the water. All of your attention is focused on the animal and your eyes are not focused on anything else; however, the glittering water, clouds, and bright blue sky make the dolphin look more majestic. What if you saw the same dolphin jumping around in a garbage dump? The dolphin definitely wouldn’t look as majestic.

Tip: You could always use bigger creatives and simply incorporate the concept of foveal vision to various aspects of the creative.