June 2009 Usability Spotlight

June 25, 2009

Eye Tracking Bing vs. Google: A First Look

By Aga Bojko, Associate Director

As soon as Microsoft's new search engine Bing was launched (on 5/28/09), User Centric conducted an independent and non-sponsored study to offer a glimpse into the battle between Bing and the powerful incumbent, Google. Eye tracking technology was used to capture 21 participants' eye movements as they completed two informational (e.g., "Learn about eating healthy") and two transactional (e.g., "Book a last minute vacation") search tasks in each engine.

The goals of the research were (1) to compare the distribution of attention on equivalent areas of Bing and Google and (2) to assess how much attention is captured by elements that are unique to Bing.

Read full article

Usability Tip by Aga Bojko

Avoid Heatmap Misuse

Attention heatmaps are only data visualizations. They cannot explain or help analyze the data. Heatmap analysis often leads to misleading conclusions. To maximize their usefulness and reduce ambiguity, heatmaps should always accompany a quantitative analysis and serve as illustrations only.

Learn more about eye tracking at User Centric

Move More Retail Products off the Shelf Using Eye Tracking

User Centric, Inc. announces a new service, Eye Tracking for Package Design, that analyzes consumers' eye movements to help make packaging more noticeable, engaging, and convincing. The service enables businesses to compare the impact of their package design against their competition, and either improve an existing design or identify the most effective one from a group of new concepts.

Strong shelf presence for consumer products is critical in a rough economy. Effective packaging increases the product's likelihood of being purchased by making it stand out among other products. But how does a company figure out what draws consumers' attention, especially before their product hits the stores?

Read complete article

The Not Usable File

Which way should I go?

Did You Miss?

Our March Usability Spotlight highlighted some interesting articles:

Sneak Peek!

Handbook of Global User Research

Edited by Robert Schumacher

User Centric and the UXalliance collaborated on a book, due out in November, about how to overcome the challenges of international user research. The purpose of this book is to share practical, no-nonsense information from a number of knowledgeable sources from around the globe, each with a broad range of experiences from the field. Pre-order the book now!