Inattentional Blindness

Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice a fully visible but unexpected object or feature when attention is directed elsewhere. It is distinct from change blindness (failure to notice a change between two views): inattentional blindness is about missing something that was there all along. In accessibility and interface research, eye-tracking studies show that users with cognitive load or perceptual decline can gaze directly at a target button without registering it, which explains why text-only tutorials often fail even when the instructions are followed. This is a key motivation for in-situ highlighting and deictic visual anchors that force the target element into perceptual focus.