On Apr 22, 2008, at 3:08 AM, Larry Tesler wrote: > 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.
Larry, I have no doubt that the observations are of interest. My point is that the inferences drawn from those observations have little-to-no validity, thus the tea leaf analogy. If someone fixates on a link for a unusually large time, does that mean they are confused by it? Or they aren't confused, but are trying to decide if its what they want? Or they know whether they want it or not but are considering something else? Different inferences will lead to completely different design solutions. Are you saying it doesn't matter which inference (and therefore, which design solution) the observers choose? When you back an eye-tracking supporter into a corner about this, they all say, "Well, you should only use eye tracking in conjunction with other data collection tools and techniques to verify your inferences." In almost all cases, the "other data collection tools and techniques" would yield just as much value without the eye tracking as with it, so what's the benefit? Second, in almost all uses of eye tracking I've seen in the last 5 years, it's in the form of twisting the meaning of the heatmap/plot diagram/tea leaf reading into supporting whatever wacky inference the specialist wants to support. "See that big red spot there. That means the users are confused" v. "See that big red spot there, that means we fixed the design." If there really is something to this eye tracking thing, I'd think you'd want your team members to all look at the same heat map and come to somewhat similar design implications. Eyetracking equipment: $30,000 Ouija Board: $5 Quality design based on solid inferences from rich, meaningful data: Priceless That's my take. Jared 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 ________________________________________________________________ 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
