Eye Tracking Update » Eyetracking Web Usability

Eye Tracking: Helpful Tips For Your Site Design

dbrendant — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 16:30:00 +0000

A recent article takes a look at one of the more overlooked design principles, the patterns of eye movement. For readers of our blog, eye movement and gaze tracking will come as nothing new, but for many designers and creative directors, gaze tracking is still something of a mystery, yet to be truly utilized in [...]

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Eye Tracking: The Power of Heat Maps

dbrendant — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 16:30:38 +0000

When you write about eye tracking as regularly as Eye Tracking Update does, you tend to see a lot of heat maps. To some, heat maps seem like the holy grail, while at other times they’re described useless eye candy that really only points out what’s wrong with your web design without offering much in [...]

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Which One Is Better? Mouse Tracking Or Eye Tracking?

dbrendant — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 16:30:05 +0000

We obviously write a lot about eye tracking here at Eye Tracking Update, and a lot of articles pass over our desks. One that seemed particularly relevant had to do with the difference, pros, and cons between eye tracking and mouse tracking. Usability studies, of course, are used to test and optimize a website’s usability. [...]

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Eye Tracking: Which Web Photos Are Crucial For Usability?

dbrendant — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:30:53 +0000

Another article we came across recently mentions eye tracking and a study that tested whether or not people were attracted to certain images on a web page. When designing, many include decorative images to spruce up the site, inform the text, and give the eye something to look at. Seems like a good enough idea. [...]

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Eye Tracking Shows We Start At The Top

dbrendant — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 17:27:22 +0000

In a recent article posted at a pay-per-click sales site, they rave about eye tracking and how it’s changed design altogether. Of course, it’s not eye tracking that’s changed design, heat maps and corresponding eye tracking studies and results can help inform a designer or content manager how the public sees their site. It can’t [...]

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Eye Tracking Shows Not All Websites Are Created Equal

dbrendant — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:55:36 +0000

Not all websites are created equal. Some have better design, better color, stronger ads, others look better, are easier to use, more efficient, and some just work better altogether. This doesn’t mean it’s not a competitive world, however, and just because, say, Google is leading the pack at this moment doesn’t mean it will hold [...]

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Shocking Revelation: Eye Tracking Has Problems

dbrendant — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:17:49 +0000

With more than a few articles under our belt on the strengths of eye tracking, we thought it might be interesting to point out some of the limitations of eye tracking. We’ve mentioned in previous posts that eye tracking can provide insight into the usability of a website, but without supplementary effort, the data gleaned [...]

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Text 2.0 Uses Eye Tracking to Customize Reader Experience

dbrendant — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 16:00:51 +0000

Spreading like wildfire, eReading devices are changing the way we consume written materials, creating a competitive market as they become more advanced. And while many are predicting the end of the printed word as we know it, tools such as Text 2.0, a reading technology that personalizes a reader’s experience by tracking eye movements, are [...]

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Using Eye Tracking & Brainwaves to Evaluate Ad Effectiveness

dbrendant — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:37:46 +0000

An Indian research agency is saying that advertisements that tend to fare well in the North of India don’t necessarily do as well in the West. Millward Brown, the agency investigating the topic, is bringing several new tools to its clients – tools that will help to measure the effectiveness of ads and people’s responses [...]

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Eye Tracking and Style Guides

dbrendant — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:33:54 +0000

We’re well aware by now that eye tracking studies have given us a good idea of where readers look on a page. It seems like most eye tracking studies – usability wise, anyway – are based around exactly this: where do readers look first. We’ve been following eye tracking news in depth for about a [...]

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Eye Tracking and F Patterns: Recurring Theme in Web Usability

dbrendant — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:38:44 +0000

Again, the F pattern. It’s a frequently recurring topic worth noting, as it really seems to be the strongest and most consistent trend we see coming out of the various web usability studies throughout the industry. When designing a site, a paper, or a page, it’s important to know how a person reads, where they [...]

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Eye Tracking: Evaluating Landing Page Usability With Surveys

dbrendant — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:58:43 +0000

Landing page, splash page, homepage. Call it what you will – there are many names for the first page of a website, that is – the page that is supposed to be the starting point for users. But with the growth of powerful and effective search engines, the landing page is becoming somewhat moot, as [...]

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Moodle Using Eye Tracking to Study Usability and eLearning

dbrendant — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:13:19 +0000

Another study using eye tracking we came across at Eye Tracking Update has to do with a program called Moodle, which appears to be an e-Learning (teaching and learning) program used by Austrian students (please correct me if I’m wrong or if you have any more information about the program). Gergely Rakoczi of the Vienna [...]

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Framework for Eye Tracking Patterns and Usability Problems: Pt 3

dbrendant — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:02:49 +0000

Ehmke and Wilson, the two researchers who published the report in association with City University in London, raise the point that there still remains a need “for studies that relate eye-tracking patterns to specific usability problems (by indicating cognitive processes).” In the past, eye tracking metrics have been compared to general interface usability, assessed by [...]

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Framework for Eye Tracking Patterns and Usability Problems: Pt 2

dbrendant — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:51:03 +0000

In a recent post, we started to review new research being done at the Centre for HCI Design at City University in London. Two researchers, Ehmke and Wilson, set out to establish a framework by which to observe and analyze any correlations between eye tracking and what a person is thinking as they’re maneuvering around [...]

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Framework for Eye Tracking Patterns and Usability Problems: Part 1

dbrendant — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 23:51:29 +0000

When you are trying a new product, you want it to work, right? If a company makes a good product, people use it. If it’s a bad product, people will not – it’s quite simple. Of course there are several factors like strategy, marketing, money, connections, production, and even a little luck involved in making [...]

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Eye Tracking Studies Suggest Google is Making Us Stupid

dbrendant — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:56:41 +0000

After reading the article about Nicholas Carr that posted recently on Eye Tracking Update about how eye tracking studies have identified a change in reading behavior online, you might be interested in seeing some of the points raised. There’s a giant wiki page on Carr’s original essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” in which he [...]

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Eye Tracking Questions Usefulness of Real Time Search Results

dbrendant — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 01:57:25 +0000

A few eye tracking studies have shown that users tend to ignore “real time” results in searches. There is quite a lot of eye tracking research that goes into the usability and effectiveness of one of the most popular websites, Google. But if new research is showing ineffective trends for real time results, it can’t [...]

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Eye Tracking Research on Banner Ad Blindness

dbrendant — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 00:22:31 +0000

Humans adapt in mysterious ways. Sometimes they adapt in more obvious ones though. When you’re browsing through webpages, you’re continuously bombarded with advertisements, flashing colors, expanding boxes, and catchy text. But in all honesty, if I surf the web for 15 minutes, I won’t recall any particulars about the ads I’ve seen, let alone notice [...]

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Eye Tracking on the Cheap: Making MacGyver Proud

dbrendant — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 22:44:41 +0000

One of the more fun aspects of writing for Eye Tracking Update is when a new, do-it-yourself eye tracking device shows up online. With so many formal reports (these are also great, of course!) involving medical diagnostics and web usability studies, it’s refreshing and enjoyable to see when tinkerers start innovating on their own, on [...]

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Google Uses Eye Tracking to Test its Revamped Design

dbrendant — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:30:30 +0000

As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But even the most successful websites need a reassessment every now and again to stay ahead of the game. A few days ago, Google introduced it’s latest changes, the eighth iteration of the world’s most popular site. Well, that may not be true anymore [...]

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Eye Tracking: Online Social Networks and Web Usability Testing

mfox — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 21:49:56 +0000

Website usability testing has received a lot of attention lately. As some of the most frequently used sites on the web, social networking vehicles like Facebook have been the subject of multiple usability studies. Various Eye Tracking Update articles have touched on the debate regarding which technique used in these studies for evaluating web usability [...]

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Eye Tracking Is Still A Touchy Subject

dbrendant — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 23:54:04 +0000

Plenty of articles and discussions have been written about the pros and cons of eye tracking. When it comes to usability studies, it’s still a relatively hot topic, with debates over the merits and limitations of eye tracking technology in researching how people use the World Wide Web. Acuity Blog just reposted a nicely written [...]

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Eye Tracking: Readers Run Out of Gas Below the Fold

mfox — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:03:43 +0000

Web usability guidelines have remained pretty consistent since the inception of the Internet. Actually, according to an article entitled “Scrolling and Attention,” 80% of these guidelines have remained the same since the 1990s. But one guideline that has changed has to do with the “above the fold” concept. During the first years of the web’s [...]

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Eye Tracking: Why Ugly Websites Can Kill Your Business

dbrendant — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:39:58 +0000

We know that eye tracking studies, of course, can help designers learn about their websites, offering insight into how viewers approach their pages and navigate around. But eye tracking will often inform those at the other end of the design process, be it the start or the final touches. In a recent blog post by [...]

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Eye Tracking Looks at How We Rely on Google for Answers

mfox — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:44:58 +0000

The Internet has changed the way we seek information. Up until the last couple decades, information was found in books or in the minds of those more knowledgeable about a subject than ourselves. But today, if you have a question, you just “Google it.” The seemingly all-knowing Google (or Yahoo, MSN, Bing, etc.) is where [...]

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The Latest in Eye Tracking Web Usability Research pt3

mfox — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:00:35 +0000

Eye tracking as a method of researching web usability has been the main topic of a couple of recent posts on Eye Tracking Update. Covering recommendations about the planning and conduct of web usability research by the consulting and research company, Nielsen and Norman Group, these posts laid the groundwork for this third post, which [...]

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Eye Tracking the News Industry

dbrendant — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:30:51 +0000

Anyone who reads the news regularly knows that the journalism industry is in the midst of an epic change. Some might say it’s in dire straits, but where there’s trouble, innovators often see opportunity. In recent posts, Eye Tracking Update has focused on tips learned from eye tracking studies that enable designers to make their [...]

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Eye Tracking: Facebook and LinkedIn Usability

dbrendant — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:24:20 +0000

Nowadays connectivity is undeniably convenient, as the Internet has provided a platform for us to use social networking sites to stay in touch, make friends, meet clients, and enlarge our circle. Sites like LinkedIn and Facebook provide business and peer networks that organically grow and expand, providing an endless field of potential friends and clients. [...]

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The Latest in Eye Tracking Web Usability Research pt2

mfox — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:12:43 +0000

It is no secret that eye tracking is one of the most revealing approaches to evaluating web usability. A viewer’s eye movement behavior as they scan through a webpage or site can tell a lot about how navigable and user friendly the design is. Of course there are other, simpler evaluation tools like monitoring cursor [...]

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Eye Tracking Usability and User Experience, but Fun Overall

dbrendant — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:38:02 +0000

With the rapid growth of computer tech, new gadgets in so many hands, and with a vast population online or at least aware of the Internet, there comes a comparable emergence of new terminology. A once quite specific language is entering into everyday vernacular. A post on the blog at Insideria.com discusses two terms brought [...]

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The Latest in Eye Tracking Web Usability Research pt1

mfox — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:55:06 +0000

Web usability is a hot topic in the eye tracking industry. This is because eye tracking technology provides researchers studying the usability of a website or software interface with more comprehensive feedback than just thinking out loud, click behavior, or time on page. Having the ability to observe eye movement behaviors is about as close [...]

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More Eye Tracking Tips for Web Usability

dbrendant — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:59:30 +0000

In a recent post we touched on another article’s review of 23 important lessons that eye tracking has taught us in regard to website design and usability. They were pretty valid points, and not all of them were mentioned in the original post, so we thought we’d pass on a few more tips… F shapes: [...]

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Tips From Eye Tracking Studies on Website Design

dbrendant — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:02:40 +0000

Here at Eye Tracking update we’re often talking about lessons learned from the various eye tracking studies that have been done over the years. A reader recently forwarded a decent article that collected a bunch of these into one place. Twenty-three to be exact. Here are a few of them relating to webpage layout and [...]

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Eye Tracking Study Compares Tag Cloud Layouts

mfox — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:32:58 +0000

From the massive quantity of information on the Internet arises the challenge of trying to organize it in a way that enables users to find what they need. What good is having all the answers to all the questions if you can’t locate the answer to the question you are actually asking? Media sharing, social [...]

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Where’s Waldo?… Eye Tracking Only Registers Half of the Visual Search Process

mfox — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:08:59 +0000

Many people are familiar with the popular “Where’s Waldo” books, in which you search for the red and white sweater-clad Waldo in a chaotic scene of colors and images. But while you were scanning the pictures for the little man, you were most likely unaware of the complex brain functions and visual processing that was [...]

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Eye Tracking History: What Have You Done For Me Lately?

dbrendant — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:00:23 +0000

In the last week we at Eye Tracking Update have been running through the history of eye tracking technology, talking about the early accomplishments and observations of Louis Emile Javal and eye tracking’s transition from its roots in the medical world, to its increased use by marketers and designers in the 1980s and into the [...]

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Eye Tracking: The Next Stage

dbrendant — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:00:07 +0000

In a recent post focusing on eye tracking through the ages, we left off with the early 20th century accomplishments of Charles H. Judd and Thomas Buswell. While it’s a relatively short history, the progression of eye tracking has been rich with development, and curious figures like these would pave the way for a wide-open [...]

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Eye Tracking: The First Half

dbrendant — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:05:02 +0000

In 1879, a Parisian ophthalmologist named Louis Émile Javal made some groundbreaking observations about eye movement and the way readers scanned across a series of words. After studying the eye movements of readers without the aid of eye tracking technology, he observed that humans’ eyes do not move continuously across a line of text, but [...]

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Eye Tracking Exploring the Differences Between Baidu and Google

dbrendant — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:00:08 +0000

So many differences exist between cultures, it’s natural to wonder how various cultures see. A blog called Just Behave recently asked a question along these lines about the Chinese market, setting off to perform their own eye tracking experiment to see how eye movement differs from Western culture to tendencies in China. Apparently, the author [...]

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Fixations and Saccades in Eye Tracking

dbrendant — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:47:59 +0000

A recent blog post on eye tracking brings to light a variable that many researchers who use eye tracking technology have to deal with throughout their studies. When using gaze or eye movement for research, you must distinguish between fixations and saccades. And to understand this difference, we have to look at the physical structure [...]

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Top 5 Eye Tracking Usability Findings

mfox — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:41:16 +0000

It’s always interesting to learn how eye tracking is being used to improve web usability. A recent article on Tendocom brought up the top 5 eye tracking usability findings of 2009: People Read in ‘F’ Patterns: Eye tracking heat maps have shown that whether internet users are viewing Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) or looking [...]

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Eye Tracking in Visual Behavior Research Gives Marketers a Competitive Edge

mfox — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:00:22 +0000

Did you know that when you look at something, whether it’s a photograph, a webpage, or even the pyramid of tomato soup cans in a retail display, your eyes glance over the object in a series of patterns? Some aspects of the object or scene attract your attention quickly and some receive more concentrated fixation [...]

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The Cost of Eye Tracking

dbrendant — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:17:32 +0000

In a different Eye Tracking Update article, we wrote about the small but rising chorus of voices that are deeming eye tracking technology as a trend on the downturn. This is true for venues like web design and usability testing. But as we’ve also noted, eye tracking tech his still invaluable and well on the [...]

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How Eye Tracking Can Improve the Newspaper Industry

mfox — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:29:25 +0000

As our lives make the move into the digital age, newspapers are stuck figuring out how to keep subscriber attention while subscription rates are in decline. Newspapers have cut back their circulation, reduced the amount of pages per issue, switched to online-only editions or, in many cases, have even closed down entirely. All these approaches [...]

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Eyetracking Web Usability and the Don’t Make Me Think Methodology

mfox — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:23:59 +0000

As Steve Krug wrote in “Don’t Make Me Think,” the purpose of web usability is to not make the user think when they land on your web site. So how does this philosophy fit into eye tracking web usability? If the user is visually scanning for information, they’re probably thinking. This is a sign the [...]

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Using Eyetracking Web Usability to Increase Your Web Traffic

mfox — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:47:15 +0000

Eyetracking web usability is the latest buzz word for web developers and designers hoping to give their clients more value from their services. From a business point of view, a pretty web site with out any visitors may as well not be built in the first place. It wastes the designer’s time and the client’s [...]

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Eye Tracking: A New Method for Marketers to Identify How You Really Feel About the Media You See

mfox — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:15:54 +0000

An effective company takes every opportunity to expose you to their advertising and marketing materials. Billions of dollars are spent every year in efforts to attract consumers’ attention and convince them to engage in a desired behavior or action. With this much money being spent on marketing, it is essential for companies to know how [...]

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