ATTENTION, PERCEPTION, AND INFORMATION PROCESSING BY USERS OF POLITICAL PARTY WEBSITES: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

Abstract

The goal of this research is to providewebmasters with a theoretically and experimentally validscheme toward understanding the influence of design in theselection, processing and memory retention of specific itemsthat give form to websites of Portuguese political parties.Our project has the following research question: Thestrategy of design used by Portuguese Political Partiesinfluences the attention, perception and informationprocessing? We stated the following hypothesis: Attention,perception and information processing are mental processeswhose intensity varies according to the strategy of designthat makes up the configuration of political websites. Theresearch implements an exploratory methodology. Based onthe exploratory sessions using the eye-tracking device, weconcluded that the subject begins its visual route usingvisual resources. However, the information processing ismainly based in textual resources, and images play asupportive role in the interpretation of the contentspublished in political parties websites.Index Terms ⎯ attention, Eye-tracking, informationprocessing, political party websites.