September 3, 2010

Surprise! Eye Tracking Shows Men Look at Women and Men

Men look at Men too

A post on the blog Think Eye Tracking discusses something they’ve learned about research results: people don’t always tell the truth. They set out to create a test showing how it can happen and, more importantly, how eye tracking can be used as a window into people’s subconscious thought processes.Think Eye Tracking performed an experiment showing two images side by side, one depicting a male in a tight pair of swim trunks and the other a female in a bikini. Study participants donned an … [Read more...]

More Debate on Effectiveness of Eye Tracking

eye tracking effectiveness

We came across another couple articles focusing on what you’ve always wanted to know about eye tracking. The articles were posted on Another Useful Blog, a German blogger’s site that covers usability issues in interface design. The articles were broken up into two parts, and we’ll cover the first in this post and the 2nd in the next.Basically, the ongoing debate is still being discussed: is eye tracking worth it? Some see it as a silver bullet whereas others consider it a total waste of … [Read more...]

How does Head Stability Improve Eye Tracking Accuracy?

head stability

When conducting research, the accuracy of the data is critical to the validity of the results. In the field of eye tracking research, we are always searching for ways to improve our techniques and make the data we collect as legitimate as possible. A German blogger, Markus Weber, discussed data accuracy of eye tracking in a post on the blog site, Another Useful Blog.Weber writes that one essential part of the eye tracking setup is the camera that captures light reflected by the eye. From there, … [Read more...]

Is Eye Tracking Eye Candy?

Which side are you on? The side that says eye tracking is entirely useful, a tool from which you can gain real insight when it comes to usability studies? Or something more vague, a tool that’s not really a tool at all but a bunch of arbitrary data from which you can’t make any accurate conclusions. Is eye tracking eye candy?When it comes to usability studies, it’s not all positive in the world of eye tracking. For example, eye tracking provides less opportunity for user feedback. In order … [Read more...]

Key Benefits of Eye Tracking

Eye tracking can be a useful tool in measuring and understanding user experience for a website. A post from earlier this year at Cxpartners.co.uk, broke down some key elements and uses for eye tracking.First off, you see what the user sees. It sounds simple, but the ability to see what the user sees can bring another dimension in understanding how a design is performing. Are the elements you were hoping would be seen, being seen? And are they being understood? When are these elements first seen … [Read more...]

How Do You Know Which Eye Tracking Metrics To Use?

Confusion

As we’ve mentioned before, eye tracking comes at a price – often a high price. Cost prohibitive eye tracking solutions for usability have made for a lot of legitimate questions asking if eye tracking is truly worth it. But let’s assume you’ve bought into the idea that eye tracking is useful, and by some means, be it private or public funding, equipment donation, or cheaper alternatives like DIY eye tracking, you have an eye tracker to work with.A recent post touches on the immense amount … [Read more...]

Eye Tracking and Usability: Which Metrics Are Valuable?

Multiple Eye Tracking Metrics

A few articles we’ve recently done at Eye Tracking Update have focused on the cost and effectiveness of eye tracking for usability studies. There’s a lot of debate on the subject of course, but assuming you’ve decided that eye tracking works for you, you may be somewhere along the lines of choosing which metrics to use. Or maybe you’re not choosing, but thinking you need to see all of them in order to gain insight into how a user uses a website.Well, as we’ve written in some of our … [Read more...]

What Eye Tracking Could Do For You

Internet marketing

In a recent article we discussed further what eye tracking is good for. With a lot of naysayers still voicing legitimate concerns, it’s important to note eye tracking’s value, even if it comes at a high price. There are a number of companies working on more affordable (dare we say – cheap) products, but unless you’re looking to do it yourself, chances are you’re paying a pretty penny for an eye tracker or to a consulting firm with expert knowledge.It’s important to note that, while … [Read more...]

Shocking Revelation: Eye Tracking Has Problems

confused

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 from eye tracking is just that – data.Knowing what to do with that data is the key, and there’s not one easy answer for your usability or design problems when it comes … [Read more...]

Is Eye Tracking for Usability Studies Worth the Trouble?

Internet Browsing

Despite many advancing eye tracking technologies, there are still naysayers that continually challenge the industry with fair questions. One question: Is eye tracking worth it?It’s easy to get excited about eye tracking and the ability to see where people look while they're using a website. It sounds like an incredible opportunity to gain insight into the user experience and a window into what the user is thinking. Eye tracking, of course, is quite expensive when not done in a DIY manner, and … [Read more...]