Call To Action, a book just released, authors Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg discuss online “eye-tracking” studies. These studies show a pattern that all web visitors use (at least in the West). It's true for newbies or a long-time Internet users, whether they’ve been to a site before or not. Bryan Eisenberg says:
Here's something else that's unusual. With newspapers, people look at the pictures first. But it's the exact opposite on websites. Web visitors look at the text first. They look at graphics last...if ever.
Read more at When it Comes to Websites, People are the Same