IMG_0242 At SES NY this morning, Susan Weinschenk, Chief of User Experience Strategy of Human Factors International, participated in a panel about eye-tracking research and shared some of her thinking on this topic, including the 7 traps to avoid, which I share below. Dr. Weinschenk has a PhD in Psychology and has spent several years conducting cognitive research with a focus on unconscious mental processing.

There are 40 million sensory inputs coming into your brain at any given time and you are only aware of 40 of them! Most of our decision making happens unconsciously. This presents challenges for those of us that want to analyze what people do on our websites. When we ask someone a question and they answer, the answer they give is commonly made up (in order to put their reasoning into words and justify their decision) since most times that decision was made unconsciously (so they may not be able to articulate the real reason behind that decision).

Eye-tracking research involves a person sitting in front of a monitor looking at something on the screen, with tiny cameras focused on their eyes to track where they look and in what order. This research can provide valuable information about a website visitor's focus of attention. And, this information can be helpful in improving the design and layout of the pages to enhance the visitor's experience. 

Eye-tracking Studies - 7 Traps to Avoid

Trap #1: Underestimating the effect of what you ask people to do on where they look

  • Keep in mind that the subject is not looking at the website in a vacuum, they have been given instructions on what to do and this will influence their eye path
  • When reviewing results, be sure to understand what was said to participant before they saw website as this impacts how they view it and the results you will see

Trap #2: Assuming that where people are looking is what they are paying attention to

  • In eye-tracking, central (or straight-ahead) vision is measured
  • In everything we do/see, peripheral vision is very important and frequently used, so we're missing out on a piece of the visual contribution when we do eye-tracking

Trap #3: Underestimating the effects of your protocols

  • How you run the study will impact the results. For example, you cannot use a "think out loud" protocol when doing eye tracking as people tend to look away from screen when thinking out loud
  • It's very important to hire a research company that knows the right protocol and can set it up correctly to minimize impact on study results

Trap #4: Underestimating the time needed to analyze the data

  • There is a ton of data output from these studies, so be careful not to fall into analysis paralysis

Trap #5: Underestimating the time/cost to do the study

Trap #6: Overwhelming people that you present the study results to with the data

Trap #7: Neglecting to draw useful, meaningful decisions and actions from the study

If you are thinking about conducting an eye-tracking study for your site, keep these traps in mind and do your best to mitigate them as you move forward with leveraging this type of research to improve your site.

"You can use all the quantitative data you can get, but you still have to distrust it and use your own intelligence and judgment" - Alvin Toffler