Short attention span challenges website developers

People don’t spend more than eight seconds looking at a screen. Website developers have to catch their attention within that time.

Chandigarh: Website developers have a hard time keeping their websites afloat because websites need viewership and viewers don’t have the attention span to let a site load, says an International Journal of Trend in Research and Development (IJTRD) Report.

“The attention span of a person is just eight seconds”, says the IJTRD Report.

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“Attention span works if we have a target area to focus on,” says Mr Aadi Garg, a Counselling Psychologist. “If a person is not sure as to what they want, their attention keeps on shifting.”

As a person who frequently visits various websites, Mr Nikhil Jain says, “A website needs to have a good design it should be attractive to the eye.” Very bright or out of place colours make it hard to focus on it for long.

Mr Garg says that every person has a “short term memory” and a person only focuses on “things that attract them.” If the person is not attracted by something in an instant then they forget about it in a few seconds.

To tackle the problems of losing viewership, many web developers and designers use different techniques to keep viewers on their websites for longer periods.

Mr Manoj Kumar Gupta, Web designer and Digital Marketer at Indosaw Co., said, “Good quality and content- related pictures attract more viewership to a website.” Pictures that are shareable on social media platforms bring more viewers to websites, says Mr Gupta.

Mr Jain further said, “Websites should be compatible with both phones and computers.” He says that if any website does not load properly on mobile then he does not wait for it to load. “When one has everything at the click of a button, it becomes difficult to wait for a website to load.”

“We try to make websites that load fast and are mobile-friendly,” said Mr Gupta. The design of the website depends upon the theme of the content that will go on it. Apart from that, internet speed also plays an important role in determining how long a website will take to load. That is not in the developers’ hands, he said.

“Technology changes rapidly and it is required that we keep on making our website in a way that a user stays longer on our website. One needs to keep pace with the changing environment,” said Mr Prateek Srivastava, Senior Technical Consultant at Crowe.

The website development process has changed a lot over the years. “We used HTML for developing websites in the past. It made simple and static websites. Then during the 2000s JAVA was introduced and that changed the face of website development in the whole world,” said Mr Gupta.

During the pandemic induced lockdown period, people binge-watched on different OTT platforms. “People think this is a grace of prosperity,” said Mr Garg. People think the more series they complete, the more prosperous they will become, but that’s not true. “It is a sign of less mental capacity,” he said.

Mr Garg thinks that people might see the adverse effects of this in a few months. A short attention span might make people “more impulsive and anxious”.

“In adults, their mind is not at peace, this causes low mood, anxiety, and disturbed sleep which can lead to clinical depression,” says Psychologist, Dr Prashant Shukla.

This short attention span might turn out to be problematic in the long run. According to a Healthline article, a short attention span can have several negative effects like poor performance, inability to complete daily tasks, missing important details or information, communication difficulties in relationships, and inability to practice healthy habits. In the long term, this could even lead to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).