Web pages: Tunnel Vision

This information from Jakob Neilsen shows how users interact with the information on Web pages "Users don't see stuff that's right on the screen. Selective attention makes people overlook things outside their focus of interest."

web image courtesy of Microsoft.com

He goes on to say, "...Selective attention is really a survival instinct; if people had to pay attention to all stimuli in the environment, they'd never get anything done. They are also more likely to overlook something important...It's only human: focus on a few things and ignore the rest."

The most important information often gets overlooked.; focus on it when analyzing the layout of your page(s) and test your pages with real users.

If you're redesigning your site or just a page or two, get some real users and test it before taking it live. And read his entire article on the subject here:
Tunnel Vision and Selective Attention (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)