ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses what drives consumers' attention when scanning assortments. It discusses the three principles of design for online assortments. Involuntary attention is influenced by visual properties of the assortment. These properties include relative salience of objects within the assortment, location effects of those items on a screen, and number of facings and display size. Janiszewski, Kuo, and Tavassoli showed that self-directed selective attention can influence choice independently, without extensive decision-making. The directed attention functions are enhanced where there is more competition in the visual field that makes looking at just one item more difficult. More fluent processing triggers positive affect, which in turn increases attractiveness and liking. There are a few key concepts that help make an assortment easier to process: reduce the size of the assortment, reduce information intensity and increase familiarity, and reduce the friction between the item and the background.
