Eye Tracking in Usability Research and Testing

Eye tracking shows you a user’s experience through their own eyes.  You can see:

• where they look
• what they pay attention to
• what they miss.

 Eye trackers are capable of capturing a variety of eye behaviours, including:

• saccades (rapid movements)
• fixations (pauses in movement)
• pupil dilation
• blink rate. 

Until recently, eye tracking has been a fairly unreliable and costly addition to usability research.  However, recent advances in both software and hardware have made it a useful tool in usability studies.      

What are the benefits of using eye tracking?

Eye tracking gives direct insight into user behaviour which may not be identified by other techniques such as participant observation, task measurements or verbal feedback.  Used in conjunction with other methods it provides richer data to help us fully understand usability issues and recommend effective solutions.

Facilitators use real-time eye tracking data to help them ask the most relevant questions.

Client observers find watching eye tracking overlays in real-time make the session more interesting and engaging.

What will eye tracking tell us?

Using eye tracking in a website usability study can help you find out:

• What do users look at first on a page?  What elements do they ignore?
• Does important functionality and content stand out?  When do users look at them? 
• What content do users read and what do they ignore?  Do they read in detail, or scan? 
• What is the typical visual flow? 
• How long do users focus on certain features/ areas of interest for?
• What is the typical viewing order of pages and common site navigation patterns?
• Are there differences in scanning patterns and task performance between different user groups – e.g. novice vs. experienced?
• Are any elements distracting to users, or preventing them from accomplishing key tasks?

 You can use this information to analyse and compare designs and layouts to help decide:

• Which layout or design will be most efficient and effective?
• Which pages are too crowded, or require too much scrolling?
• If the layout help to guide the users to the key content and direct them through key tasks
• Is the navigation system discoverable and easy to use? 
• Which navigation system is better?

 What is the output from eye tracking?

Eye tracking software produces a huge number of metrics and statistics.  Before we start a project, we will define and agree your research objectives with you.  We then plan the sessions and measurements to make sure we analyse and present information which gives you the most actionable results.

Once we have analysed the eye tracking data in combination with all the other information we have collected, we use the visual output to support and illustrate our findings.  We find, for example, that visual attention maps, heat maps, and scan paths can help design teams understand usability issues more clearly.

Recent projects using eye tracking       

Here are summaries of two recent projects that benefited from using eye tracking.

Prototype Government Website

We tested the site navigation of a prototype government website to see whether it was intuitive and customer centred.  35 target users attempted a series of tasks using the website whilst the project team viewed the sessions with eye tracking overlays in our viewing room or via a live stream.

Combining the eye tracking results with results from the “think aloud” approach we identified:

• the areas of the site navigation which were working well
• the areas which were being overlooked by users.
• prioritised recommendations and possible solutions to improve the usability and visual design.

Local Navigation for National Media Company

We tested prototypes for a new local navigation scheme  to ensure that it was easy and intuitive to use.  12 users tested the site, including several with learning difficulties, dyslexia, and mild cognitive and motor disabilities.  We used eye tracking throughout the sessions to observe and record users’ natural visual strategies, and to relay them to the test observers.  Following each task, participants were asked to reflect on their experience and we probed their understanding of the navigation and its functionality.

We presented the key usability issues and our recommended solutions to the design team.  The eye tracking images provided additional insight and encouraged the group to brainstorm solutions as we discussed each issue.

What do our clients say?

System Concepts conducted usability and accessibility testing of our Primary History website.  The sessions were well suited to children - not always an easy user group - and the use of eye-tracking software provided extra insight, as did the school observation.  The findings were insightful and well-presented and the recommendations invaluable not only for our current website but for future developments. We have been extremely pleased with both the process and the results.

 Sali Button, Content Producer, BBC Schools (Teachers & Parents)

The usability section of our website contain more information about our research and testing services, or please contact us for an informal chat about how we could help you improve your website.