Designing for Attention in Crowded Spaces

The Retail Lesson: Motion and Distraction

Imagine walking through an IKEA store. The main aisle pulls you forward, almost like a river current. People rarely stop unless something really makes them pause. As a designer, you quickly realize you can’t rely on long explanations, detailed copy, or subtle design flourishes. The environment simply won’t allow it.

I had two main strategies when designing for these spaces:

1. Make the most important information big. If we wanted to highlight a home furnishing solution-say, a new modular sofa-we gave it more space, more light, and more visual weight than anything around it.

2. Remove unnecessary noise. Just as powerful as making something big is making the surrounding information quiet. Stripping away secondary signs, toning down nearby visuals, or simplifying the color palette helps the star element pop.

It wasn’t just about signs or words. Sometimes the “message” was the way we staged a room. A single striking arrangement-a cozy reading nook under a loft bed—could communicate “small spaces can still feel inviting” better than any poster ever could.

Translating This to UI and Web

When I moved into UI and web design, I was surprised by how much of this carried over. Websites, like retail stores, are crowded with competing elements-navigation menus, banners, calls to action, forms, product listings. Users scroll (instead of walking), but the principle is the same: they move quickly, scanning for relevance, and rarely give you their full attention.

Here’s where the retail lessons translate beautifully:

• Hierarchy matters more than decoration. Just like enlarging a sofa display in-store, enlarging a call-to-action button or giving it breathing room can make it more noticeable than any amount of decoration.

• Whitespace is your silent ally. Removing clutter around a primary action (like a “Buy Now” button) is the digital version of clearing the aisle around a key product display. Studies confirm that whitespace improves focus and comprehension Nielsen Norman Group, 2017.

For example, on one project I worked on, we had a landing page cluttered with testimonials, features, and a long-form explainer. The sign-up button was there, but buried. We cut 60% of the text, bumped up the button, and gave it breathing room. Conversions jumped immediately—not because the button was prettier, but because it was finally visible in the crowd.

The VR and Game Design Parallel

AR, VR, and game design add a whole new layer to this. In immersive environments, you’re not only competing with other information - you’re competing with the entire environment. Players or users can look anywhere, and they often do.

In VR, attention design is often about guidance through subtle cues. You can’t just slap a giant “look here” sign in someone’s headset; it breaks immersion. Instead, you use light, color, or motion to draw the eye. A glowing object in the corner of a room or a character that moves slightly will naturally pull focus. This isn’t just anecdotal - research on spatial attention in VR supports the idea that peripheral cues are powerful drivers of where people look Madan & Singhal, 2017.

In games, I’ve used similar tricks. When designing UX flows for inventory systems or quest logs, clarity and focus are everything. You want the player to understand immediately what’s important-like which quest is new or which item is rare-without scanning through walls of text. Color coding, iconography, and hierarchy work exactly the same way they did on IKEA’s aisles.

The Principle of Subtraction

If I had to summarize one timeless insight, it would be this: attention isn’t gained by adding more, but by carefully subtracting.

In retail, that meant stripping away competing signage so one product could shine. In UI, that means reducing visual clutter so the user’s next step feels obvious. In VR and games, that means creating an environment where the user’s gaze naturally flows where you want it, instead of being overwhelmed by equal-weight distractions.

The paradox is that subtraction often feels risky. Clients and stakeholders will want to cram “just one more thing” into the design. But the more you add, the less people actually see.

One study in cognitive load theory points out that our working memory can only process a limited number of elements at once Sweller, 2011. Overload the user, and attention fragments. Simplify, and attention locks in.

Practical Tips

So if you’re just starting out and trying to design for attention, here are a few practices I’ve leaned on:

1. Ask yourself: what’s the single most important thing? If everything screams for attention, nothing does.

2. Use scale and whitespace deliberately. Bigger isn’t always better-but relative scale and empty space will always guide the eye.

3. Leverage human instincts. Motion, light, and contrast are universal attention drivers, whether on a store floor or a VR headset.

4. Don’t be afraid of quiet. A calm background makes the message louder.

5. Test in context. Watch how people behave in the environment-whether that’s walking through a store, scrolling a page, or exploring a VR room. They’ll always surprise you.

Closing Thought

At the end of the day, whether I’m laying out a retail space, building a web dashboard, or designing a VR tutorial, I always return to the same mental image: a crowd moving past at speed. My job is to make them stop, notice, and remember-if only for a second.

The tools may change-foam core signs versus Figma frames versus Unity Engine-but the principle stays the same. Attention is fleeting. Design with that in mind, and you’ll cut through the noise in even the most crowded spaces.