Page scanning and web design

Jakob Nielsen recently published research which has implications for web design may be a rediscovery of a rule in typography: the Gutenberg Rule. Nielsen produced a small study of how the eyes of roughly 250 people scanned a website. With a page of text the pattern followed is roughly F shaped was the conclusion.

The Gutenberg rule and it's associated Z-Pattern of processing was developed by Edmund Arnold in the 1950's.