Several years ago I participated in a study of Website usability.  The exercise tested users' ability to see things on a Web page, and was based on a published report of a similar study.  Each user was asked to look at a page for a certain time, then, with monitor turned off, asked to draw what was seen.  The drawings captured the major parts of the page, but in all, many things were missing.  it seems only a small portion of what is on a Web page is actually seen.

I'm as guilty as anyone else.  Seeing things on a page just because they are there is not productive.  I want only what I am on a page to find.  That one link to the information I seek, the image I find useful, or the phone number of the party I want to dial.  Rarely do I look at an entire page and enjoy all of the elements it contains.  Unless, of course, I built the page.

Web pages aside, I'm not so sure we don't miss more of the world around us than we see.  I'm convinced I see too little of my environment, and often make an effort to just look.  Look at the space around me...look at the ground...look at the buildings.  Portland, for example, has some spectacular architecture in plain view.  All I have to do to see it is look up, but rarely do I.

Drawing a picture or painting a painting is an exercise in detail.  My work is about detail, ever increasing detail, and I know if a piece isn't going well because I can't see, or feel for that matter, the details in the progression.  Often I'll spend more time just looking at a subject, especially a complex one like a vacuum tube or aircraft, hoping to see more, thinking I'm missing something.  I can spend over an hour just looking.  And most times it pays off.  If I take the time to just look, the actual drawing goes much quicker.  It's a bit of a paradox, actually, because seeing the details means taking much longer to finish a piece, but the actual working time is about half, with little or no rework.  Maybe it's not the most efficient way to work, but I discover something new about every subject because I take the time to look at the details.