Introduction to Eye Tracking

Creating effective visual designs

During the design process, we work with the creative team to evaluate the effectiveness of the concepts they develop. With eye tracking, you can precisely determine:

The visually dominant and captivating areas of the page
The time spent looking at specific parts of the page
The areas looked at on the page
The areas not looked at on the page
The path taken when scanning the page to complete a task
The optimal placement of components on the page

This information can be used by the creative department to arrive at the single, most effective design to meet your business and customers goals. There’s no more trial and error, or relying on subjective opinions.

Get the visual design right the first time with our eye tracking services

Click below to download a video of eye tracking in action

Eye Tracking video

Predicting behaviour

Usability, eye tracking and market research Eye tracking relates to usability and market research in the following diagram. The core is understanding how people are thinking about your designs, processing what they see and then make a decision to act.

While market research is about opinions and preferences, these are not good for making strong predictions about future behaviour. Instead, you need a combination of usability testing to observe people's actual behaviour, and eye tracking to understand how they perceive and process what they are seeing. From this, you can make much better predictions about people's expected behaviour.

Compelling results

Analysis of the testing session in Morae Eye tracking, in conjunction with recording tools such as Morae™, allows for detailed digital recording of the entire usability testing session. In addition to traditional observation and reporting, we can deliver the results of usability testing in a compelling multimedia format for presentation to the executive. You can't argue when you're watching a dozen people liking or disliking the design - the decision is very clear and is no longer personal opinion.

Quantitative analysis

Hot spots on the page Eye tracking takes us one step further by analysing perception and decision making. It is the closest we can get to mind reading as it shows us where people are looking ‘before’ they behave.

The first image shows where people are spending the most time on the page. The red areas represent the most time, while yellow to green indicates very little time.

Notice that in this example, the person is not looking in the bottom half of the screen. You can use this information to change the design so people look all over the page, or ensure that the most important content is in the top part of the page.

Path taken on the page The second image shows the average path people are taking when viewing the page. The blue circles indicate where people looked, and the size of the circle indicates how long. Each circle has a number showing the sequence, and the blue lines show the path.

You can use this information to change the order of items so people look at the content in the right sequence. For example, if people are given the buy button straight away without having viewed the features and benefits, they may not actually click it. You need to ensure you take your customers on the right journey to introduce the product, tailor it to their needs and then present the buy button. Of course, you still need to make the buy button obvious if people already know they want to buy!!

State-of-the-art eye tracking facility

Our state-of-the-art eye tracking facility, pictured bellow, shows the eye tracking unit with the web camera on the top.

Unlike other eye tracking technologies that require cumbersome headsets, PTG’s eye tracking equipment looks and works like a standard LCD monitor. If required, the eye tracking equipment can be easily taken offsite to client premises or other rooms.

Click below to download a video of eye tracking in action

Eye Tracking video

Quick set up and calibration

Calibrating the eye tracker in seconds The unobtrusive nature of PTG’s eye tracking technology means it can be easily calibrated for the individual participant within seconds, including people who wear glasses.

In the centre of the image is a black area, with two feint dots on it. These 'read' the user's eyes and take into account reflectivity, distance apart and the existence of glasses.

The next step is to follow the blue dot around the screen 3 or 4 times and then it's done. All this takes just seconds, meaning we can get straight on with the testing.

click below to read the recent news on Eyetracking:

"Eye tracking in the press"

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