Читать книгу Eye Tracking the User Experience - Aga Bojko - Страница 31

“Does my study need a buy-in boost?” is the third question that you should ask yourself when deciding whether or not to use eye tracking. There is a layer of mystery surrounding eye tracking. Anyone can watch what participants are doing and listen to what they are saying but specialized technology is required to see where they are looking. Because it is not simple or readily available, eye tracking seems more scientific and more interesting than conventional usability methods.

Therefore, eye tracking studies get more attention in organizations than “plain” usability studies. More stakeholders come to observe data collection, more read (or at least look through) the research report, and more attend the final presentation. It comes as no surprise that eye tracking often serves as a marketing tool for usability testing.

In addition to increasing the visibility of research in organizations, eye tracking helps convince stakeholders of usability issues. When presenting a problem that your usability study uncovered, your stakeholders may or may not take it seriously. Showing a gaze plot or gaze replay of a participant experiencing the confusion and inefficiency you just described suddenly makes the problem hard to ignore or refute (see Figure 2.14). This is exactly why participant quotes and video clips are included in reports and presentations—to back up the findings, as if to say, “I didn’t make this up, it really happened!” Eye tracking takes this evidence to the next level because eye movements are perceived as more objective than what people say or do.

However, just like it’s possible to write well-received deliverables and give successful presentations without participant quotes or video clips for added color or emphasis, eye tracking may simply not be necessary if you already have your stakeholders’ attention and buy-in.

For those who want to use eye tracking just to influence others, here is a word of caution. Your stakeholders may expect your study to result in unique eye tracking insight—something that they could not have learned only by using conventional methods. Instead of gaining their buy-in, you may disappoint them if your eye tracking data are mostly used to illustrate and support problems uncovered through traditional usability testing. Thus, setting clear expectations with stakeholders is key.

FIGURE 2.14 Even though this participant mentioned that he couldn’t find the store locator link because he didn’t notice the top navigation at first, showing his gaze plot or gaze video to stakeholders can help drive the point home.

Summary

• Avoid the “I want to know where people are looking” research objective because it doesn’t result in actionable findings. Use eye tracking only when it can provide insight to inform a design or business decision. Don’t use it just because the findings could be interesting.

• Eye tracking can benefit formative testing by improving design recommendations through:

• Detecting usability problems in the absence of other more conventional indicators such as participant behavior and feedback.

• Revealing the source of problems that have been detected with other methods (for example, it can explain why participants made an incorrect action, failed to understand something, or took longer than expected).

• In summative research, eye tracking can help inform decisions such as which design version to choose or whether or not to launch a product. It does that by providing ways to measure and compare products along:

• Performance-related dimensions (for example, search efficiency, ease of information processing, and cognitive workload).

• Attraction-related dimensions (for example, noticeability, interest, and emotional arousal).

• Even when eye tracking is able to answer your research questions, be aware that other research methods may provide answers more quickly, cheaply, or directly. This is often the case in formative usability testing focused on finding problems and improving the design. However, the use of eye tracking may still be justified if your research can benefit from the added pizzazz in convincing stakeholders of usability problems to affect change.