These gaze path or scan path plots allow the researcher to see what items interest the participant and when the participant is looking at them. Most eye-tracking technology has the ability to connect fixations to provide the path a participant scans as they view the screen. Gaze Path PlotsĪn underutilized power of eye-tracking is the ability to add the dimension of time. Darker areas indicate fewer fixations.įigure 2: Focus map of one participant from Figure 1a. More fixations lead to a clearer view of the page. It’s essentially the inverse of the heatmap in Figure 1a. An alternative visualization is the focus map (what SMI calls it). The more fixations, the more the heat can obscure details on what people are looking at.

The heatmap in Figure 1a is from one participant that viewed the Zappos homepage and 1b shows 13 participants.įigure 1a: Heatmap of one participant on Zappos.įigure 1b: Heatmap of 13 participants on Zappos. The “hotter” the colors (redder) the more participant fixations are in one area. Fixations are places where participants look for 100 to 500 ms (a tenth to half-a-second). A heatmap is similar to a weather map except instead of temperatures, fixations are plotted. HeatmapsĪ view of where one participant (or every participant) in a study looked is called the heatmap. Here are four visualizations (eye-candy) and how to apply them to help answer research questions. If the button is in the gaze path, participants likely aren’t perceiving it or are misinterpreting its purpose. That’s a necessary, although not sufficient, step for determining whether participants perceive and understand design elements.įor example, if users don’t click a button, eye-tracking can tell you if the button is even in the gaze path of users. Seeing eye movements and locations allows researchers to know whether elements are within a participant’s visual field. It’s most effective when the visuals are combined with other metrics or data the eye-tracking software produces. But this executive eye-candy, while compelling, is often not enough to effectively answer research questions.ĭespite its reputation of all flash and no substance, eye-tracking has the ability to answer certain research questions other methods cannot. So much so that Jared Spool has said he’d rather have an Ouija board than eye-tracking software.Įye-tracking outputs some compelling visualizations that executives love. Like many UX methods, it can be misused or misapplied. After all, the eyes don’t lie!īut eye-tracking is not a panacea. Eye-tracking is a method that gets a lot of attention.Ĭouple fancy (and expensive) equipment with a method that feels like peering into a customer’s thought process and you’ll get interest.Įye-tracking is perceived as something akin to a lie detector mixed with an MRI.

Eye tracking gaze