Welcome to Spring and bright colors. But the colors on this page are not flowers; they are science, insights and cutting – edge technology. This is eye tracking – the science part of usability, design and interactive. Read below to see how our new usability lab can help make your next project a success.

Paul Janowitz
Founder and CEO

Eye Tracking the User Experience: Dr. Stephanie Vance , Sentient's Director of Research

With the launch of our new usability facility, SPROUT Usability Labs, Sentient is adding eye tracking to our user experience research toolkit. This state-of-the-art methodology involves tracking and recording a user’s eye movements in real time as he or she interacts with a visual stimulus (e.g., a product, website, or software). The basic idea behind eye tracking is that where people look indicates what they are paying attention to and how they will actually interact. Thus, by analyzing a user’s eye movements, we can identify what aspects of the stimulus they find important, interesting, or confusing, and we can make adjustments and improvements as necessary.

Eye tracking has traditionally been an academic methodology used in cognitive science, psychology and human-computer interface research; however, as the technology has become more accessible and unobtrusive, commercial interest has quickly risen. At the same time, many wonder if eye tracking really adds anything beyond standard usability methods like the think-aloud protocol – is it a justifiable investment? This is a valid question, and to address it let’s take a step back and look at traditional user experience research.

The goal of user experience research is to observe people using some product (or website or software) to discover problems and errors in use and to identify areas for improvement. In addition to measuring areas like task accuracy and efficiency, researchers typically employ the think-aloud protocol in an effort to understand why users make certain choices (like clicking on a specific link) and how they decide which course of action to take. Understanding these issues is critical if we want to pinpoint precisely where design flaws exist and identify viable solutions. However, as decades of psychological research demonstrate, people are notoriously bad at explaining how and why they behave as they do. They may be unaware of their reasons (or even the behavior), or they may know the reason but be unwilling to reveal it. Bottom line – standard usability sessions measure the end-state of a user experience and not how or why they clicked or chose an action. All of that comes from visual assimilation of the stimuli and until now could only be roughly evaluated with self-reported behavior.

These limitations of traditional user experience research, in particular the think-aloud protocol, highlights the value of eye tracking analysis. In a nutshell, eye tracking provides an alternate route – one that is scientific, measurable and bypasses unreliable self-reports – to the why and how underlying user behavior. Eye tracking is particularly useful in addressing the following questions:

Eye-tracking analysis typically yields two types of output: Heatmaps and Gaze Timelines.

A heatmap is an aggregate image representing the eye gaze data of all users viewing a given page. The warmer colors at specific points on the page indicate where people’s viewing patterns converge, and thus show us which items or region draw the most attention from the group.

•  A heatmap image provides a single-glance depiction of information viewing and patterns of usage
•  Even more importantly, it shows those areas that users never see at all – and if they didn't see it, they can't use it or choose it
•  Heatmaps provide a powerful visual tool that is driven by user behavior and allows clients to quickly spot design gaps, capitalize on usage patterns and communicate design direction easily to teams

A gaze timeline is an individual image that indicates the path of one user’s eye gaze for the duration of each page, view or visual stimulus. Each circle indicates a fixation, and larger circles indicate longer fixations. Analyzing gaze timelines allows us to answer fine-grained questions such as:

•  What element(s) are viewed first, second and so on for a given task or impression?
•  Did users have trouble comprehending the information or design before taking action?
•  Did users see and then choose to skip over an area or simply not see it at all?

Eye tracking complements traditional behavioral and self-reported measures of user experience with physical measures of eye movements, showing us what users pay attention to and how they process the information they see. When eye tracking is added to the usability arsenal, we learn not only if design weaknesses exist, but also where they lie, why they fail and how to fix them.

To learn more about our new usability lab and its unique services and amenities, call Sentient's Director of Research, Dr. Stephanie Vance at 512.288.1706

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I joined the Sentient team in January as an Account Manager to ensure that clients’ needs are met and that research intelligence, branding and interactive execution are blended to smooth perfection. Prior to joining Sentient, I served as an Account Manager at GSD&M’s Idea City where I managed thirteen partner agencies across integrated campaigns for AT&T in addition to multiple large scale web and interactive launches for American Legacy Foundation. I hold a MS in Marketing and a BBA in Accounting from Texas A&M University. I am super excited to be at Sentient and I look forward to applying my passion for delivering great work to clients, while also ensuring all the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed. Before and after work, one can find me expending myself at the gym, playing outdoors or shopping at Whole Foods. I believe that exercise and what you put in your body are two of the most important things an individual can do for themselves – which of course leads to better client work!

Heather

Sentient is pleased to launch AustinProBono.org. AustinProBono.org is a Web community that connects advertising and marketing professionals who offer pro-bono services with nonprofits that need them. Founded by Sentient’s own, Paul Janowitz, the inaugural group of sponsors also includes Austin AdFed, GSD&M’s Idea City, GamePlan Marketing & Events, Watershed 5 Studios, EnviroMedia, Terminal B, Master Web Design and Greenlights for Nonprofit Success. This eclectic group of agencies, IT consultants and do-gooders worked tirelessly between day jobs to make AustinProBono a reality.

AustinProBono recently held its launch party on March 6, 2008. Press coverage of the event can be found in the Austin Business Journal and the Statesman (scroll to bottom of the page).

AustinProBono is a volunteer project managed by volunteer business and association partners. To join or help go to www.austinprobono.org.

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