When you see a heatmap for the first time, you are probably so busy saying “wow!” that you forget to critically evaluate what you are seeing. It’s easy to feel intimidated. The technology ...
When you see a heatmap for the first time, you are probably so busy saying “wow!” that you forget to critically evaluate what you are seeing. It’s easy to feel intimidated. The technology involved is phenomenal. But this doesn’t mean all research done on an eye tracker is infallible – far from it. This talk is intended to give you a heads-up on how to think critically about eye tracking.
Huge thanks to Bunnyfoot for providing all the eye tracking heatmaps used in this talk. This talk was given at UXLX'10 in Lisbon.
Gijs Van Dam, CEO at MindbusI just talked the other day to a neuropsychologist about this and how interesting it would be to combine ET with fMRI. That would give you an extra objective source of evidence next to the ones listed in slide 19.1 year ago
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Booster GoldI had a professor that was way into that eye tracking. The tracking equipment is silly to look at but tells you a lot about advertisements.2 years ago
It's just that it looks like an eye-candy... Marketing and the board can't resist the lovely gradients. :)2 years ago
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Leon at Leongood presentation and interesting points2 years ago
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Harry Brignull, User Experience Designer at Clearleft@Acuity ETS If you look at slides 41 onwards, you'll see I intentionally ended with a set of unanswered questions. If you want to respond to them, that would be fantastic! James Breeze tells me that he's also preparing a response, along with some other advocates.3 years ago
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Acuity ETS Limited at Acuity ETS LimitedHarry, as a reseller of eye tracking equipment you make some valid points - in terms of that without correct understanding of how the eye, and indeed the mind and your memory, works and without putting eye tracking results in context to the goals and aims (such as the Realeyes study you correctly identified a flaw in) then outputs alone don't add value. Recently we have run some eye tracking workshops for potential clients (for both us, and also UX companies) to identify these weaknesses and to educate and help people determine the difference between 'here's a few heatmaps' type of reporting as opposed to constructive and detailed work - where a solid methodology using eye tracking can add a lot of value to a study. It would have been nice if you had acknowledged that with the correct methodology and test protocol that eye tracking can be a powerful tool - indeed you have enquired with us about the purchase prices of equipment in the past. Perhaps we can 'add' to your presentation and complete the 'circle of (eye tracking) life'.3 years ago
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Objective Digital at Objective DigitalNice one for explaining how eye tracking can be messed up! Thanks for the credit! However, I am preparing a story about how eye tracking can be done correctly and how valuable it really is.3 years ago
The purpose of this talk is to tell you just enough about eye tracking so that next time your sitting through a presentation from a consultant, instead of sitting there in awe, you know what questions to ask and you’re able to critically evaluate whether the design implications are valid and worth paying attention to.
I’m Harry BrignullI’m a user experience consultantThis is my blog: 90percentofeverything.comThis is the company I work for: Madgex.comWe make digital recruitment websites.You may not have heard of us because our software is whitelabel – our clients rebadge it with their own brandingHowever it’s possible you’ve used our sites without realizing. We power about 150 job boards In Europe, catering for about 2 million job-seekers per weekAs the UX lead at Madgex, I’m the person who’s responsible for making sure that they’re happy and satisfied.
Eye tracking is probably the most MISUNDERSTOOD and ABUSED research methods in the field of user experience.The purpose of this talk is to give you a heads up, so you don’t get taken in.
Eye tracking is probably the most MISUNDERSTOOD and ABUSED research methods in the field of user experience.The purpose of this talk is to give you a heads up, so you don’t get taken in.
Eye tracking is probably the most MISUNDERSTOOD and ABUSED research methods in the field of user experience.The purpose of this talk is to give you a heads up, so you don’t get taken in.
Eye tracking is probably the most MISUNDERSTOOD and ABUSED research methods in the field of user experience.The purpose of this talk is to give you a heads up, so you don’t get taken in.
Our eyes move around in a combination of saccades and fixation.We don’t realise it but our eyes are continuously flicking from one place to another within our field of vision. These rapid movements are called saccades. Fixations occur when eye settles on something for 200 ms. (definitions of exact duration vary).
Image credit: Richard Carlsonhttp://www.pals.iastate.edu/carlson
Image credit: Richard Carlsonhttp://www.pals.iastate.edu/carlson
Image credit: Richard Carlsonhttp://www.pals.iastate.edu/carlson
Jared Spool Ouija Board Quote: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss@lists.interactiondesigners.com/msg16874.html
What you need to know about Eye Tracking (New version)Presentation Transcript
What you need to know about Eye Tracking Harry Brignull
Blog: 90 percent of everything Company: Madgex
Before we start, a story…
Anyone know what this is?
Pedoscope – used to x-ray feet
Invented by Dr Jacob Lowe for use in WW1 field hospitals
s He patented the pedoscope and licensed it to shoe shops In popular use from 1920-1960!
s He patented the pedoscope and licensed it to shoe shops In popular use from 1920-1960!
Reveals the invisible Exciting for clients Visually compelling Differentiated the owners as ‘experts’ Generates sales …but completely unnecessary for fitting shoes!
Image credit: Tobii.com
The Tobii T120 Eye tracker Cost: ≈ €28,000 Anyone can buy one Minutes to learn to operate Years to become an expert Image credit: Tobii.com
The Tobii T120 Eye tracker Cost: ≈ €28,000 Anyone can buy one Minutes to learn to operate Years to become an expert Reveals the invisible Exciting for clients Visually compelling Differentiates owners as ‘experts’ Generates sales Image credit: Tobii.com
The Tobii T120 Eye tracker Cost: ≈ €28,000 Anyone can buy one Minutes to learn to operate Years to become an expert Reveals the invisible Exciting for clients Visually compelling Differentiates owners as ‘experts’ Generates sales Just like the pedoscope, Eye Tracking can be misused by novices for trivial things Image credit: Tobii.com
4 common misconceptions
Misconception 1Eye tracking allows you to see what people are thinking
Clooney or Crook – which do people prefer?
Clooney or Crook – which do people prefer?
Eye tracking gives you evidence of what people look at. This data alone does not tell you whether they like it, understand it or want it!
For this reason, ET is usually paired with other observational data
Caveat: Eye tracking is more useful for some tasks than others
When you have a simple goal e.g. “Do users notice branding within 5s?” Eyes forward Eyes left
When you have a simple goal e.g. “Do users notice branding within 5s?” Eyes forward Eyes left
If only web design were this simple! Web pages serve many different functions - for many different people- doing different things- in their own chosen ways.
Misconception 2If there’s no ‘heat’, users didn’t see it
Just because there’s no ‘heat’, doesn’t mean people didn’t see it. Users can pick up information through peripheral vision!
Misconception 3Eye tracking is scientific, by definition
Think of a hypothesis regarding this image: Let’s a an initial analysis
Think of a hypothesis regarding this image: Let’s a an initial analysis
Congratulations, you’ve done your first piece of qualitative eye tracking research!
You know what it reminds me of?
Hey, that cloud looks like a rabbit!
Hey, that cloud looks like a rabbit! In other words: looking for patterns and attributing a rationale. This is like any qualitative research - but ET is particularly prone because it is visually abstract and easy to misunderstand.
In an quantitative, empirical ET study you demarcate “Areas Of Interest” (AOIs) like this: Then you usestatistics to find out whether people fixated on one face more than the other and whether the difference in “heat” is down to chance alone!
Misconception 4Heatmaps are generalisable
The user’s goal has a huge impact on eye tracking patterns! Task: count the columns Task: count the people
Example This heat map is based on aggregated data from 54 participants during the first 30 seconds. The report states “all boxes both on the right and the left side of the page are practically ignored” But what was the task given? Without knowing, this heatmap is meaningless! http://bit.ly/tobii-realeyes
Conclusions
Perhaps you now understand why some don’t like ET! “One of these days, I’m going to make a ‘Just Say No to Eye Trackers’ t-shirt.” “How about a Ouija Board? They run about 1/3000 the price and produce just as good predictions of what works and what doesn’t.” Jared Spool (2009)
ET advocates have been slow to respond to these criticisms There’s a fissure growing between advocates and opponents
The killer question: Is ET any more effective at improving design than conventional methods like think-aloud?
We just don’t know! Where are the flagship case studies? ROI Examples? Findings that could not have been uncovered through other means?
Quite an inconclusive conclusion – but that’s the current state of the industry, folks!
Huge Thanks to Aaron Young & Rebecca Gill of Bunnyfoot James Breeze of Objective Digital Harry Brignull twitter.com/harrybr 90percentofeverything.com
Marc Miquel
It's just that it looks like an eye-candy... Marketing and the board can't resist the lovely gradients. :) 2 years ago