Using Eyetracking in Web Usability
Kara Pernice
Managing Director
Nielsen Norman Group

Benefits to Eye tracking
• Test sessions are more interesting: You feel like you
are “in the user’s head”
• Technology is awe-inspiring
• Expense involved can indicate commitment
• Heatmaps are easy to make and are sexy
• You can learn some new things, just a few:
– Exhaustive Review
– Obstacle course
– Magnetism
– Reading patterns
• “EyetrackingWeb Usability” Jakob Nielsen Kara Pernice,
due this year (2009)
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BESIDES THE MOST BASIC
QUALITATIVE, BEHAVIORAL
RESEARCH METHOD, THERE
ARE NO REQUIRED
USABILITY METHODS
(INCLUDING ET)
3

MOST MAJOR USABILITY
ISSUES CAN BE UNCOVERED
WITH TRADITIONAL
BEHAVIORAL,
OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH-
WITHOUT EYETRACKING
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IT’S ALL MOST TEAMS CAN
DO TO KEEP UP WITH DOING
THE TRADITIONAL/BASIC
USABILITY METHODS
5

EYETRACKINGSTUDIES ARE
EXPENSIVE AND TIME-
CONSUMING
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Eyetracking Method Time Drain
• Test full processes, not just single pages
– Using the Web is a fluid process
– Static page tasks miss the flow
• Disclose to the user, in recruit and during session
set-up, that you are tracking the eye
• Take time to get the calibration right
• Closely monitor eye capture status during the
session
• ANALYSIS is a bear—time drain unfathomable
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HEATMAPS ARE SO EASY TO
GENERATE BUT JUST AS
EASY TO MISINTERPRET (OR
BE INACCURATE)
8

GP looks a
little off
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The real story
10

Think Aloud Protocol
• TOL affects the heatmaps and eye gaze
• Retrospective
– Catch 22- Hybrid of behavioral research and self-reported
• Can nullify all the good behavioral work you just did
– Too novel: “Is that my eye?!”
– Defend themselves
– Want to remember/ derive stories/ please facilitator
• Recommend a combination
– Thinking aloud for qualitative learning, NOTE: TOL does
not necessarily mean talking the whole time
– No thinking aloud if generating heatmaps
– No retrospective in most situations
– Can do post-task interview under a separate stimulus
11

THE TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP,
BUT THE ASSOCIATED COSTS
LIKELY OUTWEIGH THE
BENEFITS… TODAY
12

Thank you