Jared:
> When a consultant looks at eye tracking results
> and says, "The user clearly sees X
> but they don't see Y", they are making **it up.
And using their tools badly.
What's with the hate campaign on eye-trackers, Jared?
This reminds me of the olden days when we first had video. It was an
expensive technology. It took time to learn to use, and to learn how to use
it properly. Agencies used it as a differentiator ("we have video!!!") when
they weren't strong enough to differentiate on the quality of their
thinking. Clients liked it. It was a (relative) waste of money.
Then, I found that the real benefit was that it allowed me to show clients,
quite easily, things that I'd had to learn how to see in many, many
sessions.
Eventually, video got cheap and easy. Now I'd routinely record stuff because
the overhead is minimal and sometimes, but by no means always, it's helpful
to show clients selections from the records and even (gasp) sometimes to
watch them myself to remind myself of something.
Now - fast forward to eye-trackers. An expensive technology, etc etc, right
up to (relative) waste of money. It's just technology! It's not a magic
bullet that will help the hard-of-thinking to do a better job.
And coming to the substantive point: I've used TOBII eye-trackers. They are
indeed expensive, the software is expensive, and it's expensive to keep up
with the upgrades. I looked quite seriously at getting one for a client who
had a short-term surplus money problem, but it was easy to decide to hire
one on the occasions that we considered it might be useful. They are
relatively easy to use, but they don't infallibly track everything.
Best
Caroline Jarrett
"Forms that work: Designing web forms for usability"
www.formsthatwork.com
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