Eye Tracking, a Downward Spiral?

Here at Eye Tracking Update, we’ve recently noticed a few articles showing up online with titles like “Eye Tracking – A short-sighted future?” and “The End of Eyetracking.” It seems that journalists and bloggers alike have caught on to recent trends, identifying a decreasing demand in eye tracking technology. It’s a significant dip and a good question to wonder as to why the recent decrease in demand. At the end of the year, you can expect a lot of articles with these kinds of themes – summarizing popular and not-so-popular ideas and trends throughout the year, with predictions for new tech in 2010.

The decrease that journalists and bloggers have noted, actually, is accurate and one we’ve noticed as well. But most of these articles are about decreasing trends in eye tracking technology specific to usability testing. As a webcredible.co.uk author points out, we in the industry were warned that usability testing was going to be thrown out in its entirety due to reduced budgets. This wasn’t necessarily the case – usability testing and design and development are still invaluable when it comes to new tech. But, let’s face it, progress moves rapidly, and tools like eye tracking are just not as sexy as they once were.

Trenton Moss’ article “Eye tracking – A short-sighted future?” presents a few theories on the subject. Moss says the novelty has simply worn off. Marketing industry folks have utilized eye tracking to a great extent – it’s flashy, immediate, and you get a nice looking heatmap that comes with. But, Moss says, eye tracking is just not that new anymore. There are cheaper, more efficient ways to study how people see websites these days. Programs like ClickTale and Crazy Egg offer lower prices and remain just as effective.

Moss also points out that, while nice to have, eye tracking isn’t essential when it comes to usability testing. It certainly helps and might make results easier to achieve, but it’s really nothing you couldn’t pick up anecdotally, simply watching your subject and understanding where they go when they click around a screen.

It’s also quite expensive, and until more companies show up on the scene, major eye tracking brands have very little competition, so they’re able to keep a stronghold on pricing. Eye trackers are expensive to buy or lease, and there are not that many options at this point.

Moss goes on to say that he still thinks eye tracking can be quite useful, when used in the right context, but he offers insightful points on the recent trend.

Still, while this may be true for usability testing and design, many eye tracking devices are created as a solution to medical and/or communicative disorders. Eye tracking technology in this realm may actually be increasing in popularity as materials become cheaper and more widely available, enabling every home tinkerer to play around with eye tracking.

Eye tracking – A short-sighted future?

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6. Eye Tracking Usability and User Experience, but Fun Overall
7. The Latest in Eye Tracking Web Usability Research pt2
8. Eyetracking Web Usability and the Don’t Make Me Think Methodology
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