Eye Tracking

How does it work?

User Centric has two state-of-the-art eye tracking labs. We use special monitors with infrared technology, designed specifically for capturing eye movements. This technology allows participants to be comfortable, as they do not have to wear any devices on their head. Our eye trackers require minimal set-up time, are nearly invisible to the participants, and provide high quality of data.

Why use eye tracking?

We have applied eye tracking to a variety of projects, including commercial and informational Web sites, major search engines and portals, product packaging, medication labels, and email advertising. By using eye movement measures to supplement data collected with more traditional user research methods (e.g., usability testing, user interviews), you can:

Determine what users find important or interesting and what they tend to ignore

Assess users' decision-making processes

Explain inefficient or ineffective performance

Identify search patterns and strategies

Evaluate the match between visual designs and business objectives

Eye tracking can also help measure the branding impact of pay-per-click advertising. We offer Eye Tracking of PPC Ads - a service that tests the branding impact of different ad positions on search engine results pages. Other examples of User Centric eye tracking studies include: 1) Eye Tracking Bing vs. Google: A First Look and 2) Do Not Overlook the Importance of the Display URLs in PPC Ads.

What is the output of an eye tracking study?

Our eye tracking reports include:

Quantitative analysis including descriptive and inferential statistics for a variety of eye movement measures and pupil diameter

Qualitative analysis of the spatial and temporal aspects of users’ attention

Visualizations, such as attention maps ("heatmaps") illustrating gaze activity aggregated across users, images showing individual users' scanpaths, and movies replaying users’ eye movements

Questions?

If you have questions about our eye tracking services, please let us know! We would be happy to help.

Related articles by User Centric employees:

Our research has been published in books and professional journals, and is presented regularly at conferences. Here are a few sample papers that are available upon request:

Bojko, A. (2009). Communicating Usability Findings Through Effective Infographics. Presentation with proceedings paper, Usability Professionals' Association 2009 International Conference Portland, OR
(2009). Eye Tracking Bing vs. Google: A First Look.
Bojko, A., Schumacher, R. (2008). Eye Tracking and Usability Testing in Form Layout Evaluation. Proceedings of the 38th International Symposium of Business Forms Management Association (BFMA) 2008 Las Vegas, NV Show Synopsis
Form design guidelines are numerous and easily accessible. However, very little published research exists to support these guidelines. Instead, they are based on the opinions of usability experts, their knowledge of human perception, and anecdotal evidence from internal testing with forms. This paper presents our efforts to empirically evaluate form design and better understand the underlying cognitive processes associated with layout.

We begin this paper with a brief overview of two form evaluation techniques, eye tracking and usability testing. We then describe the benefits of using them in conjunction. After an overview of previous form research, we present our systematic evaluation of five form layouts that differed in label and field positioning. The combination of usability and eye tracking measures used in the study (i.e., user behavior, eye movements, and self-report) allowed us to understand how each layout variation impacts form usability. We conclude the paper by discussing the limitations of our study and opportunities for further research.
Lew,G., Bojko, A. (2008). Where Are They Looking: The Use Of Eye Tracking in User Experience Research. Lecture presented at Internet User Experience. Lecture presented at Internet User Experience (IUE) Conference 2008 Ann Arbor, MI Show Synopsis
The use of eye tracking in user experience research is growing as a technique to assess the usability of websites. But, eye tracking’s applicability is more than pretty heatmap images. When used in combination with other user experience research techniques, eye tracking measures can be a very powerful quantitative tool to help make informed decisions. In this presentation, an introduction to eye tracking will be provided along with three case studies to demonstrate practical insight in navigation, design layout and form design.
Bojko, A. (2008). Measuring the Effects of Drug Label Design and Similarity on Pharmacists' Performance. In T. Tullis & W. Albert, Measuring the User Experience: Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting Usability Metrics. Morgan Kaufman. Show Synopsis
In an effort to make drug packaging production more cost effective, Abbott created a standard template for its prescription drug labels. Initial studies showed that the new label, when applied to drug bottles, improved performance both in terms of search efficiency and information processing efficiency. So, what exactly caused the improvement? Applying a template to all Abbott drug labels meant two things: change in label design and increase in consistency across labels Was the observed improvement due to the new design or the inter-label similarity?
Lew, G., Bojko, A., Buttimer, J., Adamczyk, K., McElheny, M., Johnson, K. (2007). Play with Your Life: Interactive Healthcare Design Games. Series of mini-workshops presented at World Usability Day 2007 Chicago, IL Show Synopsis
Play with healthcare design scenarios at User Centric's research facility at 500 N Michigan Avenue (across the street at Suite 1610). Put yourself in the shoes of a healthcare provider or patient and see how you fare against others. Can you differentiate between two drug labels in 0.05 seconds? Can you perform a successful (faux) injection the first time? How fast can you retrieve a drug from a pharmacy shelf? Can you pick the best pill color? How many fixations do your eyes need before you recognize the correct medication? Deadly serious, lively fun!
Israelski, E., Quinn, A., Bojko, A., & Gaddy, C. (2007). Use of Eye Tracking to Improve Readability and Safety of Drug Labels. Poster presented at the Parenteral Drug Association Annual Meeting Las Vegas, NV Show Synopsis
For more information on this publication, please contact User Centric, info (at) usercentric.com.
Bojko, A., Buffardi, K., Lew, G., & Israelski, E. (2006). Eye Tracking Study on the Impact of the Manufacturer's Logo and Multilingual Description on Drug Selection Performance. Proceedings of the 50th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) San Francisco, CA Show Synopsis
This presentation details a study that was conducted with standardized Abbott drug labels for domestic and international cartons. The objective of the study was to use eye tracking to determine the appropriateness of two label elements: an additional Abbott logo and a multilingual drug description. The presentation describes the eye movement methods used and measures taken, as well as the results of the project, which indicated that the additional label elements could be safely introduced without hindering user performance.
Bojko, A., Stephenson, A. (2006). A, B, or C? Comparing Layouts and Graphic Treatments Using Eye Movement Measures. Proceedings of the 15th Annual Conference of the Usability Professionals Association (UPA) Broomfield, CO Show Synopsis
Eye tracking can benefit user experience research by providing additional measures to assess and compare designs. This evaluation method can help us choose the design which ensures that users notice all key areas, facilitates the most efficient search and information processing, and/or poses the lowest cognitive resource demands on users.Using case studies as examples, this paper discusses how to design a comparative study, choose appropriate eye movement measures, and make recommendations based on complex findings.
Bojko, A. (2006). Using Eye Tracking to Compare Web Page Designs: A Case Study. Journal of Usability Studies, Vol.1, No. 3 Show Synopsis
A proposed design for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Web site was evaluated against the original design in terms of the ease with which the correct starting points for tasks were located and used. The report details three task examples in which eye tracking helped diagnose errors and identify the better of the two designs (and the reasons for its superiority) when both were equally highly successful. Advantages and limitations of the application of eye tracking to design comparison are also discussed.
Bojko, A., Gaddy, C., Lew, G., Quinn, A., & Israelski, E. (2005). Evaluation of Drug Label Designs Using Eye Tracking. Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) Orlando, FL Show Synopsis
Eye movement measures and conventional performance metrics were used to compare existing drug labels to a new label template that was created based on human factors principles and user research. Twenty pharmacy practitioners were asked to locate a particular drug among others using sets of existing labels and their redesigned counterparts. For most tasks, the new design led to faster responses, either due to a decrease in the number of fixations required to complete a task or a decrease in the mean fixation length. The number and sequence of fixations within a single label and across labels (used as indicators of search efficiency) and fixation duration (used as a measure of information processing efficiency) provided insight into the origins of the noted speed improvements, helping assess which of the multiple design changes introduced in the new template had impact on performance. Application of eye tracking to redesign evaluation is discussed.
Lew, G. (2005). Eye Tracking Techniques: It's not all about pretty heat maps!. Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) Orlando, FL Show Synopsis
For more information on this publication, please contact User Centric, info (at) usercentric.com.
Bojko, A. & Stephenson, A. (2005). Supplementing Conventional Usability Measures with Eye Movement Data in Evaluating Visual Search Performance. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCII) Las Vegas, NV Show Synopsis
Visual search is a frequent component of tasks that users perform when interacting with systems. Locating the correct links, buttons, or information on the display is necessary for the successful attainment of many higher-level goals. This paper proposes a systematic approach which could be used to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of visual search during usability testing. The presented concepts are illustrated with examples from usability studies.
Schumacher, R. M., Stephenson, A., Bojko, A., Gaddy, C., Khoo, B., & Moore, C. (2005). Eye Tracking to Improve Electronic Communications with Oncology Practitioners. Proceedings of the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Orlando, FL Show Synopsis
For more information on this publication, please contact User Centric, info (at) usercentric.com.
Bojko, A. & Stephenson, A. (2005). It's All in the Eye of the User: How eye tracking can help answer usability questions. User Experience, Vol. 4, No. 1 Show Synopsis
You conducted a usability study and found that users did not click on the only task-relevant link on the page. Did they not notice the link? Were they distracted by other elements? Did they see the link but not read the label? Did they read the label but not understand its meaning? What will you recommend? Increasing link visibility, decreasing page clutter, or changing the link label? Eye tracking can help answer these questions, filling the gaps left by conventional data collection methods.