pros and cons of eyetracking

UX Camp Brighton - November 15th 2014

Eye TrackingWhat I learned from 6 months of experimenting

Eye Tracking Device• Bought in the summer (cheaper than they used to be!)• Various ideas of how we could use it• Tried a few tests to see what we could find out…

A quick demo

Any volunteers?!?

What did we test?

• General demos to show off the device to people.• Tests on design mock-up ideas to compare variations.• Various tests on ecommerce sites to find patterns of areas of attention.• Assisting a local student with an eye-tracking study for her dissertation

Call To Action Study

…one study got picked up by popular digital marketing blog Econsultancy.

• What design features draw attention to CTA buttons?• Some tests were based on previous studies• Some were new ideas• Four tests in total, with two variations per test• Study taken by 62 people of varying ages/genders

Moving the Call to Action

Moving the Call to Action

Follow the eyes…

Follow the eyes…

Use of arrows

Use of arrows

Flat vs. skeuomorphic

Flat vs. skeuomorphic

What did we learn?

What did we learn?

Is it good if people look at the CTA button?

- They (probably) know the button is there- They could be focusing on the product- Doesn’t mean they’re going to click it!- Test is only for seven seconds- Test is flawed (user is aware of the eye

tracking)

Study Picked up by Econsultancy

The Good…

• Clients love it• It’s a unique way of testing• Nice heatmaps!• Can be fairly quick to run• It’s a gimmick (good for publicity)• Can give useful insight, if used alongside other methods• Some useful ‘discoveries’ e.g. the ‘F-Shape pattern• Useful during wireframing/prototyping to get quick feedback• Fairly simple to set up and run• Good for attention/publicity (e.g . the Econsultancy article has over

500 shares)

The Bad…

• Can be inaccurate• Can be expensive• Can be inaccurate• Doesn’t tell you ‘why’, just ‘what• Might not work on users with glasses • Light conditions can cause innacuracies• Need a lot of test subjects to get results• Tests cannot measure peripheral vision• Almost impossible to get users acting naturally• Can be seen as a gimmick (bad for reputation)

I’m unconvinced but…

Eye Tracking is just another tool that we can use to gain insight into our users. It may be flawed but used correctly, for the correct purpose, at the correct time, it can add

something to the overall process.

Questions??

Thanks

www.lukehay.co.ukluke@lukehay.co.uktwitter.com/hayluke

Want more?

Read my blog post on the Pros and Cons of Eye Tracking

Read the Call to Action study on Econsultancy