Do usability professionals really use eye tracking to its full potential?







During my recent training course with other Tobii resellers, Tommy Strandvall, Tobii’s trainer, used a cake analogy to describe how eye tracking data is leveraged in UX projects.

He spoke of three ways to enhances research outcomes.

The cherry on top.

Analysis happens as part of a standard usability test and client/developers usually observe participants’ gaze data live in the viewing room.  The best clips from the best sessions are replayed when usability test results are presented and a few heat maps are quickly pulled from the data and used to illustrate key findings.

In this context the eye tracking is commonly used as a sales value add and some eye candy that the end client can flash around their office.

The Icing.

Analysis is completed after the test and the the eye tracking data is one key focus. Practitioners us some metrics to support their findings, however the standard usability methods are generally the main source of information.

The cake.

Eye tracking is leveraged in the process for all relevant UX work.  Whether it be as a key component of the final report, a way to manage actual usability testing sessions or simply as a key method of analysing and drawing conclusions from the data.  In this case, other methods of UX research and design are used in concert with eye tracking but most findings are based on eye tracking data, relying heavily on objective metrics and additional analysis with statistical tools outside of the eye tracking software.

For the ‘Cake Bakers’ eye tracking is not presented as an option or ‘a nice to have’. It is simply ‘The way we do things round here’, it is embedded in all UX practices of a business.  This includes having a clearly outlined process or user centred design that incorporates eye tracking at all stages in all projects. For example:

• Tracking existing or competitor sites
• Quickly tracking wire frames for iterative feedback
• Tracking different design concepts
• Tracking beta sites

Eyetracking is also used to provide observers with live viewing of where people are looking during usability tests observations.

The data is used to deeply understand and empathise with how test participants experience the product, why they have problems and whether what they are telling you is an accurate representation of what they actually thought.

What this means is that the reports that are produced are considerably more insightful than ones that did not have eye tracking because the experimenter has a more detailed understanding of human experience.

Additionally, the data is used in an objective way to illustrate successes for the designers and issues during the test.  This might be in terms of relevant heat maps, gaze plots and video highlights.

Misunderstanding of eye tracking, and the ‘Cherry’ approach, has meant that eye tracking can be perceived as fairly light and lacking insight, particularly considering the equipment is quite expensive.  But this does not have to be the case!

We need to show the UX industry that eye tracking as a valuable and objective tool that is critical to understanding exactly what people are experiencing. This will allow us to leverage eye tracking and create better experiences for everyone.