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Windows of the Soul? What Eye Movements Tell Us About Software Usability. University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia August 24, 1998. Investigators. Steve Ellis - Principal Investigator
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Windows of the Soul?What Eye Movements Tell UsAbout Software Usability University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia August 24, 1998
Investigators • Steve Ellis - Principal Investigator • Bell Labs / Lucent Technologies, Room 1K-411, 200 Laurel Ave, Middletown NJ 07748, shellis@lucent.com • Ron Candrea • Bell Labs / Lucent Technologies, Room 2D-425, candrea@lucent.com • Jason Misner • Systems Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, jdm4s@virginia.edu • Christopher Sean Craig • University of Virginia, csc3b@virginia.edu • Christopher P. Lankford • University of Virginia, cpl2b@virginia.edu • Thomas E. Hutchinson • University of Virginia, teh@virginia.edu
Goals Of Our Investigation • Assess the value of eye tracking technology for user interface evaluation and usability testing • Identify eye tracking technologies most suitable for the usability lab • Identify improvements in current eye tracking system capabilities for use in the usability lab • Develop guidelines for purchase and use of commercial eye tracking systems
Previous Eye Movement-BasedPsychological Research and Applications • Reading Research (Just & Carpenter, 1980; Rayner, 1978) • Studies of Cognition and Elementary Information Processing (Just & Carpenter, 1976; Rayner, 1984) • Social Psychology/Interpersonal Communications (Kleinke, 1986) • Military Applications (Harris & Christhilf, 1980; Birkmire et al, 1993) • Marketing, Advertising (Krugman et al, 1994) • Usability Studies (Benel, Ottens & Horst, 1991; Card, 1984) • Other Ergonomic Studies (Wierda & Maring, 1993) • Bioengineering, Control (Jacob, 1991)
Criteria for Choosing an Eye Tracking System for the Usability Lab • Unobtrusive • Easy and convenient to use • Few or no restrictions on user population • Gaze direction accuracy of 0.5º or better (i.e., 1 cm at 20 in). • Effective tracking range of 30º or better • High sampling rate • Inexpensive • Work with off-the-shelf applications • Powerful and flexible set of tools for data collection and analysis
Pupil-Center/Corneal Reflection Method ERICA System
ERICA System - Continued A view of the infrared image processed by ERICA. The relative position vector between the center of the bright-eye and glint determines the position of the user’s eye-gaze.
A Pilot Study of Web Page Design • Evaluate eye tracking data as a user interface evaluation and design tool • Apply to a representative usability study of Web page design • Understand how best to collect, analyze and interpret the eye tracking data
4 tasks performed by all testers 1. Do xyz 2. Do abc 3. Do re me 4. Do nada Pilot Study Methodology 4 testers / page design; 1 page design / tester 4 Web page designs 16 independent testers
Original Web Page Design • 12 items in web page. • Each item ranged from3 -12 lines of text with 5 - 9 words/line. • About half the graphics/images were animated. • Scroll about 5 times to see entire page. Testers saw only 2.5 items per screen.
Many Hyperlinks Design • Tripled number of text hyperlinks.
No-Image Web Page Design • Replaced graphics / images with text labels. • Original hyperlinks.
Dense Text Design • Book-like, full-width layout. • Eliminate graphics / images, two-column appearance and bordered rows. • Scroll about 2 times to see entire page. Testers saw 5 of the 12 items on one screen.
Data Collection and Analysis • Playback • Gaze Points - collected raw sampled data • Gaze Trails • Dynamically defined analysis measures • Fixation Points • LookZones • Pupil Diameter
Playback • Real-time “video playback” • Tracks scrolling events
Gaze Point Analysis —Raw Sampled Data • About 10 -12 samples/sec.
Gaze Trails with Gaze Points • Overlay the sampled gaze points on the gaze trails • Gaze trails optional • Pop-up details on mouse-over each gaze point
Fixation Points - Example 1 • User defined during analysis, after capture. Parameters include: • Duration • Area • Minimum # gaze points • More accurate indication of tester’s viewing & processing
LookZone Analysis Notice that the subject, searching for the Wireless links, skipped over most pictures and focused on scanning the text blocks for targets.
Data Analysis - Review of Tasks • Task 1: Free Browse • Task 2: Directed Search • What is the name of Lucent’s new on-line technology magazine (“e-zine”)? • Task 3: Directed Search • What is the name of the software that lets you search for patterns in large masses of data? • Task 4: Directed Search and Judgment • How many links on this site will take you to pages dealing with “Wireless” technologies, such as that used in cellular phones.
Review of Web Site Designs • Four Screen Layouts • Original Text Block/Graphics Format • Many Hyperlinks • No Images • Dense Text
Comparison of Web DesignsMean Time to Complete Tasks& * Note: Testers of “Original” design were least experienced group and probably exaggerated the times on this simpler design compared with testers using the busier “Many Hyperlinks” page. & Average of e-zine and wireless search tasks.
Mean Time to First Fixationin Target LookZone& & E-zine search task P-value = 0.03
Mean Number of Fixations& & Wireless search task P-value = 0.37
Mean Average Fixation Duration& & Wireless search task P-value = 0.02
Total Fixations inNon-Target LookZones& & E-zine search task P-value = 0.13
Results and Conclusions • Correlation among most results • Dense text design elicited best performance • Eye movement data confirmed and provided insights into testers performance • Dense text design led to fewer, shorter fixations • Results should NOT be viewed as conclusive • Too few subjects, groups differed in skill level • Some experimental design flaws, confounds
Next Steps • Replicate the study • Eliminate the potential confounds • (Systematic group differences, scrolling, etc.) • Benchmark subjects’ reading speed • Expand the study to see if results are generalizable • Extend eye tracking methodology to other software applications
References • Benel, D. C. R., Ottens, D. & Horst, R. (1991). Use of an eyetracking system in the usability laboratory. Unpublished paper written for The Human Factors Society 35th Annual Meeting. San Francisco, CA • Birkmire, D. P., Karsh, R., Barnette, R. D., Pillalamarri, R. & DeBastiani, S. (1993). Eye movements in search and target acquisition. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 37th Annual Meeting (pp. 1305-1309). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society • Card, S. K. (1984). Visual search of computer command menus. In H. Bouma & D. G. Bouwhuis (Eds.). Attention and Performance X: Control of Language Processes (pp. 67-96). London: Erlbaum • Harris, Sr. R. L. & Christhilf, D. M. (1980). What do pilots see in displays? In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 24th Annual Meeting (pp. 22-26). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society • Jacob, R. J. K. (1991). The use of eye movements in human-computer interaction techniques: What you look at is what you get. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 9 (April), 152-169 • Just, M. A. & Carpenter, P. A. (1976). The role of eye-fixation research in cognitive psychology. Behavior Research Methods and Instrumentation, 8, 139-143 • Just, M. A. & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). A theory of reading: From eye fixations to comprehension. Psychological Review, 87, 329-354 • Kleinke, C. L. (1986). Gaze and eye contact: A research review. Psychological Bulletin, 100, 78-100 • Krugman, D. M., Fox, R. J., Fletcher, J. E., Fischer, P. M. & Rojas, T. H. (1994). Do adolescents attend to warnings in cigarette advertising? A eye-tracking approach. Journal of Advertising Research, 34, 39-52 • Rayner, K. (1978). Eye movements in reading and information processing. Psychological Bulletin, 85, 618-660 • Rayner, K. (1984). Visual selection in reading, picture perception, and visual search: A tutorial review. In H. Bouma & D. G. Bouwhuis (Eds.), Attention and Performance X: Control of Language Processes (pp. 67-96). London: Erlbaum • Wierda, M. & Maring, W. (1993). Interpreting eye movements of traffic participants. Chapter 21 in D. Brogan, A. Gale & K. Carr (Eds.), Visual Search 2 (pp. 287-300)