Coming up with attention-grabbing advertisements or intriguing interfaces may seem to be enough, but as these heat maps show, we all tend to focus on specific things when viewing something.

Do we tend to look at the faces in ads or the actual product being shown? And how do most of us read social media or news site homepages?

Take a look at these 20 eye-tracking heat maps to see how audiences view popular advertisements and media online.

1. Too much information can be distracting. When it comes to news, less may in fact be more!

2. While grocery shopping, most us are focused on the prices first.

3. Often, the model’s face can actually attract as much attention as the product.

4. When watching football, many of us are keeping our eyes on the ball intensely.

5. On Google, the top five search results get all the attention.

6. Meanwhile, photos tend to attract the most attention on Facebook.

7. Surprisingly, most people chose to read rather than examine this Porsche here.

8. Just left of the centre of a sign is apparently the best place for a product display.

9. When gazing upon The Last Supper, most people look at the faces, but some tend to take a peak at the gap between heads.

10. Although this is an add for jewelery, more people focused on the faces.

11. There are some clear differences between how men and women view advertisements.

12. His beard may be spectacular, but most people still focused on his face.

13. Smartwater gets the attention, but so does his shoulder apparently.

14. However, Scarlett Johansson is far too distracting in this Dolce & Gabbana ad.

15. Not only is the face important, but so is where the model looks.

16. Apparently the end of The Strip in Las Vegas is the most visually appealing.

17. When it comes to billboards, people appear to read the text rather than look at the gigantic faces displayed.

18. Banner Blindness is real!

19. While reading your resume, potential employers primarily read your name, past positions and education.

20. People do read the labels, but only after inspecting the meat.

Featured photo credit: Heat Map – Gyms in Washington DC 51193 via flickr.com

Technology has taken a vantage leap in providing solutions for man. Before now, technology used to appear complex and would require a great deal of expertise to handle solutions available. Today, we have technology applicable in the simplest human activities as smart products with intelligent algorithms powering them as they make error-free judgments and provide intelligent and analytic solutions.

Does technology have all the answers?

This article from Credit Suisse, tells us that technology does not have all the answers because it has been found to exhibit “similar biases,” as humans. No one can discredit the impact of technology, but it is not totally free of human input and this is the reason we experience these biases in many areas we have technology holding foot.

Creating technological solutions transparently

This article suggests that the process of creating technological solutions be made transparent and subject to contribution from many people who would end up as users of the product – male, female, young, old, learned, unlearned and all other preferences as we have them. It also underscores the importance of having women on product development teams. This approach is not sure to eliminate all forms of bias, but it is a good way to start in order to appraise the full benefits of technology.

Technology as the connecting tool

Technology so far has been a major connecting tool amongst us humans. It is used and appreciated by all regardless of race, language and sex. In order to keep it less subjective to these arguments about human biases. I believe we should gather opinions on products and solutions before making them available to the public. This could be done by gathering input from intended target users and receiving feedback across the stages of production.

“Recognizing the problem is a start…success will depend on inclusive technologies that meet this vast untapped market.” This cannot be more apt especially at a time when we look up to technology for solutions. We should not muzzle our progress with technology by battling algorithm bias. The first way to avoid this battle is by reading this article here.