Eye Tracking The Mobile User Experience
Andrew Schall and Jennifer Romano Bergstrom

1 Get To Know Our Speakers
2 Introduction to Eye Tracking in UX Research
3 Eye Tracking and Mobile UX Research
4 Tips for Conducting a Mobile Eye Tracking Study
5 Questions & Answers
Agenda

v
Andrew Schall
Andrew has worked with numerous public and private
organizations to use eye tracking as part of their user-
centered design process including Aflac, Bloomberg, Fossil,
GlaxoSmithKline, NASA, PBS, and Rovio. He has over a
decade of experience conducting UX research and is currently
a Principal Researcher at Key Lime Interactive.
Andrew is also a frequent presenter on eye tracking, speaking
at conferences such as Human Computer Interaction
International (HCII) and the User Experience Professionals
Association (UXPA).

v
Jennifer Romano Bergstrom, Ph.D.
Jennifer has been conducting quantitative and qualitative
user-centered research for over 12 years for clients such as
the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, US Census
Bureau, FEMA, Nielsen, and Anthem, and she is currently a
User Experience Researcher at Facebook.
Jennifer and Andrew co-authored Eye Tracking in User
Experience Design (2014), and she is working on a new book
with Emily McFarlane Geisen: Usability Testing for Survey
Research (forthcoming, 2016).

Introduction to Eye Tracking in UX Research

UX Measures #KLIevents
OBSERVATIONAL
First click accuracy
Task accuracy
Time on page/task
Selection/click behavior
Conversion rate
PHYSIOLOGICAL
Eye movements
Electrodermal activity (EDA)
Pupil dilation
SELF-REPORT
Satisfaction ratings
Difficulty ratings
Think-aloud protocol
Debriefing interview

UX Testing + Eye Tracking #KLIevents
UX Testing
UX Testing with Eye
Tracking
Data while
completing tasks
Mouse movements,
clicks, comments
Scan paths, dwell time, first
fixation, re-fixations. Eye-
tracking helps determine what
led to these behaviors and
comments
Findings
Usability problems
are detected
A more thorough understanding
of usability issues and the
sources of these issues
Recommendations
Quality
recommendations
based on available data
More insightful and precise
recommendations

UX Measures #KLIevents
• Self-report metrics tell us why participants focus on certain
aspects.
• Observational metrics tell us how participants navigate and
interact.
• Eye tracking tells us what, how long, and how often participants
focus on design elements.
The combination of self-report, observational, and physiological data
allows us to better understand perceptions and behavior.

UX Measures #KLIevents
• Self-report metrics tell us why participants focus on certain
aspects.
• Observational metrics tell us how participants navigate and
interact.
• Eye tracking tells us what, how long, and how often participants
focus on design elements.
The combination of self-report, observational, and physiological data
allows us to better understand perceptions and behavior.
We do not use eye tracking in isolation.

Header Name #KLIevents
Slide from: Romano Bergstrom, J. & Strohl, J. (2015). Eye tracking the UX of mobile: What you
need to know. Presentation at MoDevUX, Arlington VA, March, 2015.

1 1
WHY TRACK MOBILE?
What can we learn from eye
tracking mobile user
experiences?

Example Findings

People do not read instructions. #KLIevents
The text within
the orange
circle
indicates the
information to
enter on the
page. The red
circled area is
where the
user enters
the ID
number. The
participant
skips theHe, J., Siu, C., Chaparro, B. & Strohl, J. (2014). Mobile. In J. Romano Bergstrom & A. Schall (Eds.), Eye Tracking in User Experience Design. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.

People need to know what to do next.
He, J., Siu, C., Chaparro, B. & Strohl, J. (2014). Mobile. In J. Romano Bergstrom & A. Schall (Eds.), Eye Tracking in User Experience Design. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.
If the mandatory fields
were not completed,
participants received
an error message that
was not helpful. This
gaze plot begins after
the participant clicks
“Ok.” The participant
looks all over the
screen, searching for
the missing
mandatory fields. The
error message did not
indicate which fields
were missing.

People attend to elements of displays
differently across devices
Bristol, K., Romano Bergstrom, J. & Link, M. (2014). Eye Tracking the User Experience of a Smartphone and Web Data Collection Tool. Paper presentation at the AAPOR Conference, Anaheim,
CA, May 2014.
Android App HomepageTablet Web HomepageTablet App Homepage
Eye-tracking data shows that fixations are centered primarily around a single icon when using
a mobile app, but more dispersed when using a website version on the same device.
Differences in visual processing between devices can make the transition from one device to
the next feel disjointed.

Questions Mobile Tracking May Answer
Sustained Attention
• How often do they look away from the screen?
• How long does it take them to reacquire what they were focusing on?
• Are elements the appropriate size for mobile?
Guided Direction
• What do they look at while completing tasks?
• Do their eyes follow the intended sequence?
• Are they distracted by elements not critical to the tasks?
Engagement
• What features do they notice?
• How much content do they consume?
Do they notice ads?

ConveyUX: Eye Tracking the Mobile User Experience | January 24 2015
171 7
HOW DOES IT WORK?
How do you conduct eye
tracking on a mobile
device?

Eye Tracking in the Past #KLIevents

Eye Tracking Today #KLIevents

Mobile Eye Tracking Stand
2 0

Quantitative Focus
2 1
The mobile stand allows us to
easily compare across
participants and to define Areas
of Interest (AOIs).
AOI metrics can include:
• Time to first fixation
• Fixation count
• Fixation duration
The software also lets you
visualize the data as heatmaps
or cluster diagrams.

Which ad was looked
at longer?
The dynamic ads were
looked at over 3X LONGER
than the static ads.
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Dynamic Ad Static Ad
Seconds
Sustained Attention / Visit
Duration
Quantitative Findings
0
1
2
3
4
5
Dynamic
Ad
Sta-c
Ad
Seconds
Time
to
First
Fixa-on
Which ad was noticed fastest?
The dynamic ads were
noticed over 6X FASTER
than the static ads.

Pros & Cons of Mobile Eye Tracking Stand
2 3
• Variety of settings/configurations
• Consistency
• Easy to compare data
• Better for quantitative
PROS
• Less natural experience
• Limits participant movement
• Not easily portable
CONS

ConveyUX: Eye Tracking the Mobile User Experience | January 24 2015
242 4
REAL WORLD TRACKING
How do we evaluate mobile
experiences outside the
lab?

Eye Tracking Glasses
2 5

Qualitative Focus
2 6
Using the eye tracking glasses
we primarily focus on observing
user eye movement behaviors.
These behaviors can include:
• Eye movement scan paths
• Regressive saccades
• Periods of attention/inattention
The primary method for analysis
is to watch the real-time eye
movements and manually code
the behaviors.

Ads
were
no-ced
when
they
interfered
with
gameplay
Ads inadvertently affected
the participant’s line of
sight and became
unavoidable to look at.
Qualitative Findings

Those
“in
the
zone”
completely
ignored
the
ads
Participants that were fully
engaged in gameplay while
the ads were shown often
completely ignored the ads,
regardless of whether they
were dynamic or static.
Qualitative Findings

Pros & Cons of Eye Tracking Glasses
2 9
• More natural user behavior
• Total freedom of movement
• Highly portable
• Better for qualitative
PROS
• Difficult to compare data
• Manual data analysis
• No glasses
CONS

Take Aways
3 0
Eye tracking can help you to better understand what
your users are looking at and what they are (or are not)
paying attention to.
Mobile eye tracking can help identify subtle changes in
attention that are important in a mobile experience.
Be aware of the current opportunities and challenges of
using this technology.
01 /
02 /
03 /

The Book
3 1
Eye Tracking in User Experience
Design
Real-world examples from over twenty leading
UX professionals
Tips on everything from getting the most value
out of your eye tracking research to
incorporating eye tracking methodology into
your organization’s user-centered design
process.
Actionable findings and recommendations
based on eye tracking research
Insights into cutting-edge applications of eye
tracking, including use in mobile, gaming, and
emotional design

The Workshop
3 2
HCII 2015: Research Methods for
Eye Tracking in User Experience Design
Attendees will learn:
• The fundamentals of eye-tracking methodology in
the field of user experience
• How to design a user experience test to best utilize
eye-tracking technology
• How to effectively conduct and moderate an eye-
tracking session
• How to analyze eye-tracking data to reveal
usability and design issues
• How to apply eye-tracking results to improve
usability & user experience design.

ConveyUX: Eye Tracking the Mobile User Experience | January 24 2015
333 3
Q & A
What questions do you have
about mobile eye tracking?