Attention is a limited resource that can be traded like an economic resource. In the attention economy, relevance is key, and information pollution is detrimental. Web designers and advertisers should aim to minimize distractions and provide valuable, relevant information to users.
Economic attention is a theory of human attention and information processing that treats human attention as a limited resource that must be carefully managed. This theory of attention and information processing is highly relevant in a variety of fields, including advertising, web design, and management. In web design, for example, a designer following the attention economy might try to create a website with minimal distractions to ensure that the website user’s attention is directed to the right places. The web designer wants to ensure that the user only devotes his limited attention to what he wants him to see. It is, essentially, an economic trade of attention to some form of information.
The core concept of the attention economy is that attention is an economic resource that can be traded. The consumer exchanges his available attention for information, however, not for a tangible product. An advertiser or other individual trying to show information about something should try to make that information worth the investment of attention. Strategies in attention economics, therefore, generally involve ensuring that a given piece of information requires only a small investment of attention or that the information presented is presented well enough to justify a larger investment. A big investment in attention can lead to a more tangible financial investment down the road.
“Information pollution” is an important term in the attention economy that refers to the presence of large amounts of irrelevant information that people are exposed to on a daily basis. E-mail spam, for example, is a form of information pollution. Many who subscribe to the attention economics theory believe that it is particularly bad because it costs nothing to produce, is unsolicited, and steals valuable attention away from more important information. Many also feel that spam and other forms of information pollution attract viewer attention, which is a valuable economic resource, offer little or nothing in return, and are therefore detrimental to the attention economy.
Advertisers and others who keep the attention economics theory in mind when doing their work tend to value relevance. Information, such as an advertisement or a webpage, is likely to provide value to a user and solicit an investment of attention if it provides something relevant to the user’s interests. Some advertisers try to make their ads relevant to as many people as possible. Others, on the other hand, seek a high level of relevance to a smaller group.
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