I am the UI / UX / Web Designer user interface in my company. Before hiring me, our company had an enterprise-level web consulting firm where we "soon let go". We still use them primarily for feedback while our contract ends.
In the past, and especially with some current reviews, this company cited the importance of developing pages for the "F-template", which showed that tests on the heat map proved that users tend to absorb web content using
My question is, how important and relevant are these types of heatmap tests for modern web design? The trend seems to be that our consultant agency believes that we should “play it safe” and stick to research. I.E. - based on the proven.
Although this seems reasonable, I think he lacks logic in terms of the fact that the Heat Map and “F-pattern” tests are based on how users tend to read blocks of text, and not so much with the interface. Indeed, if you see an image of a heat map where there is an image in the text, usually the image has a longer spot, regardless of whether it matches the “F-pattern” or not.
So should the "F-template" dictate the layout of the site and the design of the interface, or is it less related to the overall design and to the absorption of content?