Reading patterns
Recently I was reading a web page where the information was displayed in a two-column table. No, this is not going to be a table-bashing post, I don’t belong to those purists who yell “crime” whenever they see a table. My problem was of a totally different nature. I was trying to follow the logic in the order of dispaying the items, and couldn’t find any. Later I re-visited the site, and everything became clear. What happened in the meantime? Simply, they got numbered the items.
Here is what the table looks like now:
| 1 Item | 2 Item |
| 3 Item | 4 Item |
| 5 Item | 6 Item |
| 7 Item | 8 Item |
So now I can follow the numbers to get the logic of the authors. Before that it was the same table without numbers:
| Item | Item |
| Item | Item |
| Item | Item |
| Item | Item |
and in this case my eyes instinctively followed the pattern of the cyrillic И letter, rather than the author’s (repeated) Z pattern. Meaning I read first all the items from the left column from top to bottom and then I go up to the top of the right column to come down till the last item. In other words I was reading 1-3-5-7 and 2-4-6-8. However, not everybody’s “natural” pattern is the same as mine. (I used those two letters just for the sake of illustration, because I am too lazy to make a drawing…) Now the question: is this something language/culture related or just personal?
- Born bilingual?
- Supporting war affected children
- The test of the cross-cultural marriage
- The multicultural ghetto
- The etiquette of teaching etiquette
- Multicultural?
December 30th, 2004 at 12:03 (CST)
I think it’s cultural strongly, as if you learn as a first language to read a right-to-left language, or a top-to-bottom language, then you start to look at any visual information in the similar way. Most information in the West uses assumptions of left to right habits.
If you walk in the US sidewalks, people will walk more on the right side, but if you walk in India or Nepal people will tend to walk on the left side, just like the traffic on the street. Similar thing, I think.
November 13th, 2006 at 2:09 (CST)
Besides cultural or regional language differences, neurologically-based health reasons can be why people read in a Z pattern. This, I believe, will lead them to develop extraordinary aesthetic skills in society, from what I’m heard.
November 13th, 2006 at 11:57 (CST)
That’s an ingteresting thought, Thomas. I’d be glad to read about it, if you can provide a link.
Thanks for stopping by.
(too bad there is the registering requirement on your blog - I don’t do that just for posting a short comment. Sorry.)