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F-pattern and Z-pattern 0:34
A 34-second explainer of F-pattern and Z-pattern, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive F-pattern and Z-pattern demo
What this video covers
Common scanning heuristics, not universal eye paths. F-shaped scanning often appears on dense or poorly structured text; the Z-pattern on sparse, poster-like layouts. Task, language, and visual hierarchy can produce very different patterns.
Trace the overlay and you can see it: on the text page the gaze rakes across the top twice then slides down the left, leaving the lower-right a dead zone; on the landing page it cuts a Z from logo to nav to hero to call-to-action. Put the important things on those lines, and they get seen; hide them off the path, and they don't.
