Eye tracking technology: a powerful tool to understand user behavior

Key points:

• Eye tracking technology (also known as gaze interaction) is a powerful tool for understanding users’ behavior on websites and applications, providing insights beyond traditional analytics, heat maps, or mouse tracking methods.
• Despite the high initial cost, the integration cost of eye tracking projects is only a few hundred dollars. DIY solutions and platforms such as PyGaze and Gazepoint provide developers with affordable options.
• Eye tracking should not replace other testing methods, but should be supplemented. It is crucial to ensure adequate sample sizes to obtain accurate results, respect user privacy, and be familiar with the process before conducting on-site research.

Global Internet users are facing the trouble of information overload. When a user visits your website or uses your app, you only have a few seconds to decide whether the user stays or leaves.

Traditional analytics can effectively understand website metrics macroscopically, but when you build a new design or make changes, you need a way to understand what users think.

Many web development professionals turn to heat maps and mouse tracking for detailed insights, as this is a relatively simple way to gather insights about your website. Eye tracking (also known as gaze interaction) is the ideal tool for you when you need to take your research to the next level.

The Challenges and Values ??of Eye Tracking

Complex Project

Travel websites are an ideal use case for eye tracking due to the complexity of the website. Air ticket bookings in particular are perfect for using this tool because there are unlimited possibilities for customers when planning their itinerary.

Matchic Labs eye tracking video shows that many activities occur at levels that cannot be measured by mouse clicks or screen clicks. If you are working on a project with complex interfaces or users need to process a lot of information, eye tracking is crucial to your success.

E-commerce

While heat maps and mouse tracking are viable solutions for most e-commerce environments, companies need to take their research to the next level in some cases. As Rick Nguyen, founder of advertising testing company Spot Trender, pointed out in an interview:

Eye tracking may be more expensive than traditional user experience testing methods such as click tracking or mouse tracking, but it can significantly increase your sales. For example, if you have a website that sells hats, you might want users to focus on hats rather than shirts worn by models.

Online Advertising

The whole significance of the advertisement is to trigger the emotional reaction of the audience. Like e-commerce, eye tracking allows you to understand how users react to your banner or video ads.

Source: Nielsen Norman Group

Source: Nielsen Norman Group

Bidding to buy competitive keywords can easily "shrink" your wallet. Bidding to buy niche keywords can help reduce your costs, but unless you have data on user reactions, you will adopt the "wide casting net" method of video production.

Is the DIY eye tracking solution feasible?

While this technology seems to be limited to companies with a six-figure budget (the equipment itself can cost as much as $9,000-20,000+), you can integrate eye tracking into yours at a cost of as little as a few hundred dollars In the project.

If you are willing to do it yourself, you can DIY eye tracking solutions for a few hundred dollars.

Instructables: DIY Eye Tracking Solutions (Link)

To gather insights around the project, it is worth exploring PyGaze. For Python developers, the system should be quite easy to implement. It should be noted that if you are not a developer, or you don't have a developer around you, then this solution is not for you. PyGaze is a complex tool that is inexpensive (free) but takes hours to set up.

If you want to start using eye tracking right away, Gazepoint offers a variety of solutions to meet a variety of needs.

Best Practice

Confirm the sample size

As with any usability test, you need to make sure that the number of users surveyed is large enough to get accurate results. You can use the Holm-Bonferroni method to calculate the exact number, but unless you are a statistician, it is difficult to master. When performing tests, you should strive for 95% accuracy. If you have a smaller budget or have a shorter test time, you can reduce your accuracy to 80%.

If you want to avoid the hassle, you can always use the sample size calculator to determine the number of people you should test.

Don't ignore privacy

As strong opposition to surveillance projects shows, the public does not like to save their images in digital archives for analysis. While getting users involved in eye tracking research can be difficult, you can make participation more acceptable by not storing facial images as much as possible.

Simply store the original tracking record and pair it with advanced demographics. Sometimes it may be necessary to record facial images, such as analyzing emotions. In these cases, you should transparently explain how information is used and stored.

Not omnipotent

Eye tracking can provide important insights to your project, but it is not a replacement for other testing methods. It also won't immediately discover insights you haven't had before.

Unless you do the test correctly, eye tracking may make you worse than using an easier way. You should be familiar with the process before performing these tests. Once done, you should do some practice tests before using the field research.

Remember that you still need to use other research to ensure you have a comprehensive understanding of the user’s experience.

Frequently Asked Questions about Eye Tracking Technology

What is eye tracking technology and how does it work?

Eye tracking technology is a sensor-based technology that allows devices to know exactly where your eyes are focused. It uses infrared light to track the movement and position of the eyes. This technology is widely used in psychology, marketing and user interface design. It helps researchers understand where people are looking at what, which can provide valuable insights into human behavior and preferences.

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