On Aug 20, 2009, at 9:16 PM, Elizabeth Buie wrote:
I do have a question for you, Jared, to help me understand your
point: Are you
saying that we don't need to know how much time people spend with
their eyes
off the road while trying to text, or that we can get those data
without doing
eye tracking? I do understand what you're saying regarding
"regular" usability
testing, and I'm asking for clarification on what you're saying here
regarding
studies of texting while driving. Thanks for anything you can add
to clear up
this point for me.
As I've stated before, eye tracking is a great research tool. If your
goal is to study human physiology and cognitive psychology, looking
for links between physiometric results and their cognitive
counterparts, I think the eye tracking systems of today are invaluable.
I also think that eye tracking is an interesting input and control
device. It's certainly as interesting as the technology embedded in
Microsoft's Big Ass Table, er, Surface device. There's a lot we could
be doing with this, especially in the area of assistive devices.
But I don't think eye tracking is useful in a production design
process, where the goal of user research activities is to effectively
inform the design for making decisions on how to improve a specific
product. We don't know enough about how to translate the raw data
emitted from the eye tracking device into the information we need to
make decisions.
(As everyone else who has tried to defend these silly devices has
done, the going thinking is, "well, you can't use eye tracking alone."
I agree. However, my position is that it doesn't add value as an
additive input. We don't need to go down this road again, in my
opinion.)
So, to answer your question, if you're talking about research from a
scientific standpoint, I think the eye tracking equipment is a great
idea. Add it to a quality driving simulator and you can learn a ton.
(A shout out to my friends at George Mason who are doing some kickass
studies in driving simulation.)
If you're talking about designing some sort of product or tool to help
you communicate while driving, I'm not sure I see the value of adding
eye tracking into your research tools. Knowing the exact milliseconds
someone is distracted probably won't help you decide on design
requirements or solutions.
Jared
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