Kara Pernice tells the UK UPA that eye-tracking has benefits, but it does not need to be used in all web usability tests.

1. Using Eyetracking in Web Usability
Kara Pernice
Managing Director
Nielsen Norman Group

2. Benefits to Eye tracking
• Test sessions are more interesting: You feel like you
are “in the user’s head”
• Technology is awe-inspiring
• Expense involved can indicate commitment
• Heatmaps are easy to make and are sexy
• You can learn some new things, just a few:
– Exhaustive Review
– Obstacle course
– Magnetism
– Reading patterns
• “EyetrackingWeb Usability” Jakob Nielsen Kara Pernice,
due this year (2009)
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3. BESIDES THE MOST BASIC
QUALITATIVE, BEHAVIORAL
RESEARCH METHOD, THERE
ARE NO REQUIRED
USABILITY METHODS
(INCLUDING ET)
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4. MOST MAJOR USABILITY
ISSUES CAN BE UNCOVERED
WITH TRADITIONAL
BEHAVIORAL,
OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH-
WITHOUT EYETRACKING
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5. IT’S ALL MOST TEAMS CAN
DO TO KEEP UP WITH DOING
THE TRADITIONAL/BASIC
USABILITY METHODS
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6. EYETRACKINGSTUDIES ARE
EXPENSIVE AND TIME-
CONSUMING
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7. Eyetracking Method Time Drain
• Test full processes, not just single pages
– Using the Web is a fluid process
– Static page tasks miss the flow
• Disclose to the user, in recruit and during session
set-up, that you are tracking the eye
• Take time to get the calibration right
• Closely monitor eye capture status during the
session
• ANALYSIS is a bear—time drain unfathomable
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8. HEATMAPS ARE SO EASY TO
GENERATE BUT JUST AS
EASY TO MISINTERPRET (OR
BE INACCURATE)
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9. GP looks a
little off
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10. The real story
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11. Think Aloud Protocol
• TOL affects the heatmaps and eye gaze
• Retrospective
– Catch 22- Hybrid of behavioral research and self-reported
• Can nullify all the good behavioral work you just did
– Too novel: “Is that my eye?!”
– Defend themselves
– Want to remember/ derive stories/ please facilitator
• Recommend a combination
– Thinking aloud for qualitative learning, NOTE: TOL does
not necessarily mean talking the whole time
– No thinking aloud if generating heatmaps
– No retrospective in most situations
– Can do post-task interview under a separate stimulus
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12. THE TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP,
BUT THE ASSOCIATED COSTS
LIKELY OUTWEIGH THE
BENEFITS… TODAY
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13. Thank you