Where Should Your Eye Look on a TV Screen?
The “visual center” of any page is just slightly above and to the right of the actual (mathematical) center of the page. Some call it the museum height. There is also the divine composition of the Fibonacci Ratio to bring a balance to your images and the simplicity of the rule of thirds. And finally there is video. 
What happens to us when we design for television, video or YouTube? This is the age of distraction, but do we really need to cram every possible fact on the screen? Where is your eye flow to go? What should you read first? Should you listen or read the scrolling information at the bottom?
TV news stations will squeeze back the screen to show sports scores, stocks or other information not important enough for the anchors to read. Besides making the image on the screen smaller, the squeeze-back effect tends to visually add 10 to 20 pounds to the anchor on the screen.
Eye flow and design are just as important in video image as they are in paintings or print design. The elegance of the Fibonacci Ratio is the same for an artist as it is for a videographer–the only problem for the videographer is that the rule of thirds should be applied to each and every shot and the on-screen application of graphics.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.
