The Best of Eyetrack III: What We Saw When We Looked Through Their Eyes

In Eyetrack III, we observed 46 people for one hour as their eyes followed mock news websites and real multimedia content. In this article we'll provide an overview of what we observed.

Outing, Steve and Laura Ruel. Eyetrack III. Articles>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking

A Breadth-First Survey of Eye Tracking Applications  

Eye tracking applications are surveyed in a breadth-first manner, reporting on work from the following domains: Neuroscience, Psychology, Industrial Engineering and Human Factors, Marketing/Advertising, and Computer Science. Following a review of traditionally diagnostic uses, emphasis is placed on interactive applications, differentiating between selective and gaze-contingent approaches.

Duchowski, Andrew T. Lunds Universitet (2002). Articles>Software>Usability>Eye Tracking

Coming to the Aid of the Search Party

There is a definite logic to getting your company its critical share of search-engine visibility.

Miller, Nick. Sydney Morning Herald (2006). Articles>Usability>Search>Eye Tracking

A Comparison of Eye Tracking Tools in Usability Testing  

Eye tracking tools have recently attracted attention from usability professionals. Eye tracking offers usability researchers a new way to identify very fine-grained behaviors that indicate usability problems. This paper is a comparison of different types of eye tracking tools and their potential usefulness in usability testing. Specifically, the paper examines the cost of the systems, system types, sampling rate, and some system limitations. The paper aims to provide a basic introduction to technical communicators who are considering adding an eye- tracking system to their toolkit.

DeSantis, Rich, Quan Zhou and Judith A. Ramey. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Usability>Testing>Eye Tracking

Evaluating the Usability of Search Forms Using Eyetracking: A Practical Approach

The usability of forms is often massively important to the overall usability of a Web site. That's why we decided to subject some of these forms to a quick round of eyetracking tests and have analyzed the resulting data to better understand what makes Web forms usable--or unusable.

Penzo, Matteo. UXmatters (2006). Design>Web Design>Usability>Eye Tracking

Eye Gaze Tracking Techniques for Interactive Applications    

This paper presents a review of eye gaze tracking technology and focuses on recent advancements that might facilitate its use in general computer applications. Early eye gaze tracking devices were appropriate for scientific exploration in controlled environments. Although it has been thought for long that they have the potential to become important computer input devices as well, the technology still lacks important usability requirements that hinders its applicability. We present a detailed description of the pupil/corneal reflection technique due to its claimed usability advantages, and show that this method is still not quite appropriate for general interactive applications. Finally, we present several recent techniques for remote eye gaze tracking with improved usability. These new solutions simplify or eliminate the calibration procedure and allow free head motion.

Morimoto, Carlos H. and Marcio R.M. Mimica. Computer Vision and Image Understanding (2005). Articles>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking

Eye Tracking

Eye tracking is a technique used in cognitive science, psychology (notably psycholinguistics), human-computer interaction (HCI), marketing research, medical research, and other areas. The most widely used current designs are video based eye trackers. A camera focuses on one or both eyes and records their movement as the viewer looks at some kind of stimulus. Most modern eye-trackers use contrast to locate the center of the pupil and use infrared and near-infrared non-collumnated light to create a corneal reflection (CR). The vector between these two features can be used to compute gaze intersection with a surface after a simple calibration for an individual.

Wikipedia. Articles>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking

Eye Tracking: Eye Candy vs. I Can Do

Eye tracking is definitely not a magic bullet or 'the closest thing to mind reading'. It does however serve as both a great piece of eye candy for senior executives with little time and is very powerful in helping come up with the most effective page design.

McElhaw, Mark. Webcredible (2007). Design>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking

Eye Tracking in Usability Testing: Is It Worthwhile?  

The bottom line is how to ensure the customer that eye tracking provides additional value for their money. If we do numerical analysis in addition to video analysis, the need for extra time is remarkable and the analysis will become more expensive. To reduce analysis time we need automated special software and therefore we are currently developing scan path visualization software in which we include a new fixation recognition algorithm.

Aaltonen, Antti. CHI '99 Workshop (1999). Articles>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking

Eye-Tracking Studies: Usability Holy Grail?

The reality is that eye-tracking, while valuable, doesn't make usability testing any more powerful. It's what you do with the observations and the usability test data that counts.

Spillers, Frank. Demystifying Usability (2004). Articles>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking

Eyes Top Left: Lessons from Eyetrack III

Where do your eyes go when you read articles on the Web? What do you notice, and what do you miss? The upper left quarter of the screen gets the most attention, according to the Eyetrack III research of The Poynter Institute, the Estlow Center for Journalism & New Media, and Eyetools.

McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2005). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Eye Tracking

Eyetools, Enquiro, and Did-it uncover Search's Golden Triangle

The vast majority of eye tracking activity during a search happens in a triangle at the top of the search results page indicating that the areas of maximum interest create a 'golden triangle.'

Edwards, Greg. Eyetools (2005). Design>Web Design>Usability>Eye Tracking

F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content

Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Eye Tracking

Helping Businesses Evaluate Their Internet Presence  

To ensure that their Web sites are conveying the intended image, a growing list of businesses, including Avis Rent A Car System, McDonald's, Staples and Holiday Inn, are turning to companies that test usability and brand opinion for help. These companies conduct surveys and focus groups and even use high-technology eye-tracking devices to uncover how customers use a Web site and how their experiences affect feelings about the parent company.

Bannan, Karen. New York Times, The (2002). Design>Usability>Assessment>Eye Tracking

Hotspots and Hyperlinks: Using Eye-Tracking to Supplement Usability Testing

This article discusses how eye-tracking can be used to supplement traditional usability test measures. User performance on two usability tasks with three e-commerce websites is described. Results show that eye-tracking data can be used to better understand how users initiate a search for a targeted link or web object. Frequency, duration and order of visual attention to Areas of Interest (AOIs) in particular are informative as supplemental information to standard usability testing in understanding user expectations and making design recommendations.

Russell, Mark C. Usability News (2005). Articles>Usability>Testing>Eye Tracking

Hotspots and Hyperlinks: Using Eye-Tracking to Supplement Usability Testing

This article discusses how eye-tracking can be used to supplement traditional usability test measures. User performance on two usability tasks with three e-commerce websites is described. Results show that eye-tracking data can be used to better understand how users initiate a search for a targeted link or web object. Frequency, duration and order of visual attention to Areas of Interest (AOIs) in particular are informative as supplemental information to standard usability testing in understanding user expectations and making design recommendations.

Russell, Mark C. uiGarden (2006). Articles>Usability>Testing>Eye Tracking

The Hunt for Usability: Tracking Eye Movements    

Usability testing methods have not changed significantly since the origins of the practice. Usability studies typically address human performance at a readily observable task-level, including measures like time to complete a task, percentage of participants succeeding, type and number of errors, and subjective ratings of ease of use. Certain types of questions are difficult to answer efficiently with these techniques.

Karn, Keith S., Steve Ellis and Cornell Juliano. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (1999). Articles>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking

Introduction to Eyetracking: Seeing Through Your Users' Eyes

Over the coming months, I'll use eyetracking to evaluate a lot of world-renowned user interfaces--including Web sites like Amazon.com, Google News, and eBay; Rich Internet Applications (RIAs); and desktop applications--and analyze quantitative eyetracking data to provide best practices for designing user interface elements like navigation systems, menus, and forms, and for effective ad placement.

Penzo, Matteo. UXmatters (2005). Design>Usability>Testing>Eye Tracking

An Orientation to Eye Tracking in Usability Studies  

Eye tracking (ET) is a technique for capturing eye movements as a person looks at a computer interface. It provides insight into where a person is looking, for how long, and in what order. In usability testing, ET can help testers evaluate the quality of a website or software design based on the user’s eye activity. In this paper, we introduce you to ET and its application in usability. We identify questions that ET can answer, describe how it works, summarize some of the research in ET, and discuss its benefits and drawbacks in usability testing. with an eye tracker for usability testing. This process is specific to the ET hardware (ERICA) and software (GazeTracker) used in the Laboratory of Usability Testing in the Department of Technical Communication at the University of Washington (UWTC LUTE).

Chin, Crystal, Shirley Lee, and Judith Ramey. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking

Protocol Considerations for Using Eye-Tracking in Website Usability Testing  

Eye-tracking systems can enrich a Website usability study by providing an additional method for observing users' behavior. While eye-trackers can provide valuable data, the pros and cons of adding eye-tracking to a usability study need to be considered before designing the study's protocol. This paper discusses the kinds of usability questions that benefit from eye-tracking data and considerations for designing and running the study. Our findings are based on work done in the Laboratory for Usability Testing and Evaluation (LUTE) at the University of Washington, which is equipped with the Eye-gaze Response Computer Aid (ERICA) system controlled by the Gaze Tracker software, both of which were developed by Eye Response Technologies, Inc.

Cuddihy, Elisabeth, Zhiwei Guan and Judith A. Ramey. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Usability>Testing>Eye Tracking

Talking-Head Video Is Boring Online

Eyetracking data show that users are easily distracted when watching video on websites, especially when the video shows a talking head and is optimized for broadcast rather than online viewing.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Articles>Multimedia>Video>Eye Tracking

Testing Web Sites with Eye-Tracking

Thanks to some recent usability studies we conducted using an eye-tracking system, we now have real evidence of where users actually look when they view a web page. It’s clear that users quickly learn to look where they expect to find content. They also quickly learn to avoid areas where they don’t see—or expect—what they’re looking for, including banner ads and parts of the page outside the central area.

Schroeder, Will. User Interface Engineering (1998). Articles>Usability>Web Design>Eye Tracking

Tips for Using Eyetrackers in HCI Experiments

This is a summary of a talk on eyetracking for HCI students at Lancaster University in the UK. Feedback showed that students felt more able to conduct eye tracking research after attending the session.

Poole, Alex. Alex Poole (2005). Presentations>Human Computer Interaction>Usability>Eye Tracking

Trials and Tribulations of Using an Eye-Tracking System    

This paper's focus is on the challenges associated with collecting eye-tracking data. Despite operator training conducted by the manufacturer, one year of experience with eye-tracking and extensive calibration, the data collection success rate in the current investigation was very low; only six out of sixteen participants (37.5%) were successfully eye-tracked. We discuss possible explanations for this low success rate, and why we do not currently believe that eye-tracking is ready to be employed in usability laboratories.

Schnipke, Susan K. and Marc W. Todd. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (2000). Articles>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking