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What you need to know about Eye TrackingSome practical tips for designers and developers<br />Barcamp Brighton 4 #bcb4<br />Harry Brignull<br />90percentofeverything.com<br />

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Who’s this guy?<br />Hi, I’m Harry Brignull<br />I’m a User Experience consultant<br />Background in User Research & Cognitive Science<br />I work at Madgex, 2 minutes walk from here<br />

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This is my blog...<br />

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This is an eye tracker<br />They cost up to $35,000<br />Hidden down here are some infra-red lights and a webcam. <br />They are used to track the movements of your eyes so the system can tell where you are looking on a page.<br />Image credit: Tobii.com <br />

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A screengrab of the admin software.<br />The researcher can click a few buttons and generate cool visualisations like this. <br />

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THE PROBLEM WITH EYE TRACKING<br />

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Simulated Eyetracking heatmap<br />

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When you see a heatmap for the first time, you are so busy saying “wow!” that you forget to critically evaluate what you are seeing. <br />It’s easy to feel intimidated. The technology involved is phenomenal.<br />But this doesn’t mean all research done on an eye tracker is infallible – far from it!<br />Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/expressmonorail/3043760419/<br />

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The output from an eye tracking study does not have some kind of mystical significance just because an eye tracker was used!<br />

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This talk is intended to give you a heads-up on how to think critically about eye tracking.<br />... So next time you’re presented with some eye tracking findings, you don’t just swallow them hook, line and sinker.<br />

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Some<br />Some people  eye tracking<br />

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“Our specialist eye tracking services allow you to climb inside your users&apos; heads and see your designs through their eyes.” - Etre.com<br />

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“We now offer specific eye tracking research - these offer radical insights into which elements of your design (online, print, film, ad placement) gain attention allowing you to tailor key information for the most impact.”<br />- Bunnyfoot<br />

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Some<br />Other people hate eye tracking<br />

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“One of these days, I&apos;m going to make a &quot;Just Say No to Eye Trackers&quot; 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&apos;t.”<br />- Jared Spool<br />

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Number of Eye Trackers owned <br />Am I being a bit cynical here?<br />Enthusiasm about eye tracking<br />

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Clooney or Crook – which do people prefer?<br />

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Clooney or Crook – which do people prefer?<br />

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Eye tracking gives you evidence of what people look at. <br /> This data alone does not tell you whether they like it, understand it or want it! <br />

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For this reason, ET is usually paired with other observational data<br />

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Example research from Tobii<br />This heat map is based on aggregated data from 54 participants during the first 30 seconds.<br />Quoting the Tobii report “all boxes both on the right and the left side of the page are practically ignored”<br />Possible (mis)interpretation: Quick, move everything into the middle! We can’t allow the promotions to be ignored! PANIC!<br />Read more: http://bit.ly/tobii-realeyes<br />

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But hang on a minute...What task were users given?<br />

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The task given has a huge impact on eye tracking patterns! <br />Yarbus, A. L. Eye Movements and Vision. Plenum. New York. 1967<br />

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“Find a gift for under £50 for your dad” OR“Sign up for the site’s newsletter”These two different tasks are going to generate radically different heatmaps<br />

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Example study from Tobii Task: “Sign up for online banking”<br />100 participants tested<br />Source: Tobii<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75RpQ2Z6nYc<br />

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Quoting from video “[The data indicates] that they have seen the links but are not sure if they have found the right place to click. They are probably looking for a link that says &quot;sign up now&quot;. [...]<br />The conclusion - add a link that says &quot;Sign up now&quot; [...]<br />Source: Tobii<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75RpQ2Z6nYc<br />

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This is the current natwest.com homepage <br />Did they really need to carry out an eye tracking study to find out that they’d forgotten to add a call-to-action for first-time users?<br />

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Large scale eye tracking studies aren’t cheap!<br />And not lets not forget the cost of eye trackers, up to £35,000 each!<br />Caveat: prices shown above are estimated and may vary by roughly +/- £10k depending on method used & supplier<br />

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There are two types of Eye Tracking study<br />Qualitative and Quantitative<br />

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Qualitative Eye tracking <br />A handful of people are tested (e.g. 6-12)<br />An expert researcher combs through the data looking for compelling insights.<br />A great deal of trust is placed in the researcher’s expertise in separating the wheat from the chaff. <br />It’s not about numbers or statistics. You have no statistical assurance that the issues observed will reoccur with your user-base at large.<br />

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Qualitative research isn’t science - it’s detective work<br />A great deal of trust is placed in the researcher’s expertise. <br />They have to know what they are doing – what’s pertinent, what’s not, and most importantly, how to interpret the data into design recommendations! <br />Most eye tracking studies are qualitative – always be sure to find out.<br />

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Quantitative research IS science - but it’s still possible to misinterpret the findings<br />In quant studies you test large numbers of users and use statistical tests that allow you to generalise beyond the sample. <br />However just because “significantly more people looked at area X than area Y”, you can’t be sure what this really means in terms of improving the design of your site!<br />

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This is a fact<br />This is arguable!<br />This is arguable!<br />

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So – now you should now be prepared for the next time you’re in a meeting and a consultant presents you with some eye tracking findings...<br />

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Eye tracking is just another tool in the UX research toolbox. <br />There are times when it’s worthwhile <br />When you have a tightly defined design problem that specifically requires an understanding of what people look at.<br />When you are working with eye tracking experts who you can trust<br />ET Findings can create compelling evidence by dovetailingwith other findings<br />Can be a useful educational tool<br />But critics claim it ‘s hard to use, expensive, easily misused and often reveals findings you could achieve with cheaper approaches like standard UT!<br />Photo credit: flickr.com/photos/skistz/398429879/<br />

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Key learnings<br />Healthy Cynicism: ask questions. Never accept ET at face value (or any other research findings for that matter)<br />Find out what kind of users were tested, and what tasks they were given – this should frame your interpretation<br />Remember “looking at” ≠ understanding. You have to refer to what the users did or said for you to understand the bigger picture. <br />Always question the interpretation of the findings! <br />

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That’s all folks!<br />Harry Brignull<br />twitter.com/harrybr<br />90percentofeverything.com<br />