On Nov 24, 2007, at 3:18 PM, Hanif O'Neil wrote: > This data does not offer feedback on whether a > design is good or not, instead it provides an understanding of how > well a design functioned: Did users see specific content or links? > And how long did it take them to see them in the interface? Or from > an analysis perspective: Are users' click patterns consistent to > their gaze pattern? What section of the page is experiencing a > considerable drop-off rate?
Unfortunately, this is a common misperception of eye-tracking. It doesn't actually tell you any of those things. It doesn't tell you what the user sees or doesn't see. It only tells you, when calibrated well (something that's often not done), where the user eye focuses. It's common for a user to focus their eye on something and not see it. It's also common for a user to see things they never focus on. So, all you can tell is where the center of the retina pointed. And, from a design standpoint, this tells you practically nothing. Any inferences drawn from eye tracking data are influenced almost 100% from the inferrer. If a user gazes at a point on the screen for a long period (whatever a "long period" is deemed to be), are they gazing their because they are interested in that spot? Or because it confused them? If they don't gaze at another point, is it because they didn't see it? Or because they processed it from their peripheral vision (or out of a focal area which is much wider than the pixel point indicated by the eye tracker). In my opinion, eye tracking a few advantages and a lot of disadvantages. It doesn't tell design teams anything they couldn't learn some other, far less expensive way. We regularly recommend our clients avoid investing in it, stating its a waste. Though, an eye tracker is cheaper than hiring a staff psychic, so if those are your only two choices, I'd go with the eye tracker purely to save money. Jared p.s. At UIE, we've been using eye trackers since 1996, so I do have some experience with the tool. It's a great cognitive research tool, but just not something we'd recommend for anyone doing production design. p.p.s. We haven't used psychics extensively, so I may be over estimating their usefulness. Jared M. Spool User Interface Engineering 510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845 e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] p: +1 978 327 5561 http://uie.com Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
