Jared,

Eye tracking is of value when someone sees something in the data that  
leads to a new and valuable insight.

The fact that different observers see different things in the same raw  
eye tracking data is of no more concern to me than the fact that  
different players count a different number of words on the same Boggle  
board. Some people see words that are hidden in plain sight; some do  
not. But noticed or not, the words are there. In the tea leaves, there  
are no hidden words.

Adding observers to any team that is interpreting raw data makes it  
more likely that someone will notice something subtle, but important,  
that other observers have missed.

This is as true in design research as it is in radiology,  
geophysicists or espionage.

Larry Tesler

On Apr 19, 2008, at 6:46 PM, Jared M.Spool wrote:

> ... Deducing information
> about a design from eyetracking is equivalent to reading tea leaves
> and using a ouija board.
>
> The latter are cheaper, but just as reliable.
>
> Every person I know who swears by eyetracking and has stories on how
> its helped them can't explain how they would've gotten the same
> results if some other professional had looked at the same raw data.
> Until we can get to that point, the reader of the data will be more
> important than the data itself, thereby making tea leaf reading a
> viable alternative.

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