EDISONDA - user experience studio

It will take you about a second and a half to read this sentence. Eyetracking allows for measuring it with millisecond precision and to see where, after reading it, you will direct your sight. But it can do much more.

What is eyetracking and how does it work?

Eyetracking (oculography) is the examination of the movement of eyeballs. This method has been known for more than 100 years, but only recently the equipment has become non-invasive and effective enough to enable the application of eyetracking in market research.

Thanks to the use infrared cameras installed near the screen and the specialised software, we are able to precisely follow eyeballs’ movements when the user is doing tasks.

The eyetracker records two kinds of data::

• fixations, these are the points where our eye gaze has paused
• saccades, these are eyes’ movement when we move our sight from one point to another

The main advantage of eyetracking is allowing for objectively examining the users’ perceptual activity. On the basis of the gathered data, a researcher may draw conclusions about cognitive processes of research participants. Data from eyetracking research helps to answer the essential questions:

• how long people look at chosen, interesting elements (product, logo, menu)
• in what order they notice them
• which elements they notice and which they ignore
• which elements they see but, do not understand their function.

Eyetracking is one of the tools used in neuromarketing. Neuromarketing helps to examine psycho- physiological processes and on their basis check reactions to advertisements and products. For instance, irregular eyeballs’ movement suggests a difficulty with finding a given element. Longer fixations, on the other hand, imply a more intense processing of a given stimulus. This data allow us to get an insight to the conscious and unconscious attention processes during an interaction on the internet.

When is it worth to use eyetracking?

Eyetracking research may objectively check the reception and effectiveness of crucial elements of website or marketing materials in all places where clear and effective marketing message is important (e-commerce websites, portals, advertisements).

Particularly interesting results one may get through:

• comparing different website’s designs/advertisements’ layouts
• examining complexity of websites/forms/applications
• adding eyetracking as an objective measure in usability testing

What results do we get?

Data on fixation points, their length as well saccade movements may be analysed and presented in many ways.

Heat maps and focus maps

All glances are shown altogether in the form of more and less "hot" areas. The more often and the longer people gaze at a given area, the more intense the color on the map. Focus map is similar to heat map but it shows only places where the gaze paused, the rest is darkened.

Gaze plots

They show the order and length of particular fixations. They inform about complexity of glances’ course and allow us to follow the order in which particular elements attracted the users’ gaze.

Areas of interest - AOI

AOI are incredibly valuable form of data analysis. A researcher can define a particular essential area and check how long and when the examined people looked at it. Such element may be an advertisement, a button, navigation element or product’s image.

EDISONDA offer

We offer two models of research

• Eyetracking 30 – extended research with 30 participants, that gives reliable statistic data
• Usability test + eyetracking – user test with eyetracking recording

How to get an offer?

If you are interested in carrying out an eyetracking research, please contact us. We will respond within 24 hours.

Our equipment

EDISONDA has its own eyetracking hardware. We work on RED 60/120 Hz model made by German company SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI). The equipment is controlled by iViewX software. There is Experiment Suite 360° package in its most sophisticated version to be used for the tests and allowing for analysis of the dynamic areas of interest (dynamic AOI). After being calibrated, the equipment is possible to be used with almost any type of screen. The standard tests ale carried out with 22’’ screen size.

Request offer for the rest of EDISONDA studio services.