UX Scotland 2013 eye tracking glasses help define shop layout and record visitors' experience

Anna Basista UX Consultant

User Vision

Anna Basista UX Consultant

Eye tracking glasses help define shop layout and record visitors’ experience

Plan for today

User research dilemma

What is eye tracking?

Physical experiences mapping

Case Study “Visit Scotland Tourist Information Centre”

– Problem

– Solution

– Outcome

Key learning's from using the eye tracking glasses

“User research is the process of figuring out how people interpret and use products and services.”

- Mike Kuniavsky

“Value-centred design starts a story about an ideal interaction between an individual and an organisation and the benefits each realises from the interaction.”

- Jess McMullin (Boxes and Arrows)

“People lie because they don’t remember clear what they saw. People lie because they can’t help making a good story better than it was the way it happened.”

- Carl Sandburg

What is eye tracking?

Measurement of eye activity

Where and how people look

What is and what isn’t seen

What is the pattern for a group

of users

“Conventional” eye tracking

Mobile eye tracking

Eye tracking glasses

Capture user behaviour and eye

gaze in real environments

Where and how people look

Analysis of real world user

journeys

Better understanding of what is

happening when someone is

experiencing it

Eye tracking with markers

Automatic quantitative analysis (AOI’s)

Markers communicate with sensor located in the glasses

Data from multiple participants can be aggregated and overlaid on a still image

Method

• Photo of shane here.

Physical experience

mapping

The Client

How successful visitors are in achieving goals of their visit?

What prevents visitors from finding everything they want?

- Signage effectiveness

- Leaflets, Ads & Retail engagement

- Information Centre footfall

• Explain a little bit a about us recruiting people at the door

• Explain calibration procedure

• True intent

• Glasses

“What is the goal of your visit to the Information Centre today?”

Goals

“Browse for leaflets and inspiration”.

“Find information about trips,

places, entertainment...”

“Find out what is worth

seeing in Edinburgh”.

“Get maps.”

Walk around the Information Centre

Souvenirs shopping

Booking a trip

Waiting in the queue

Analysis

Footfall heatmap

Leaflets

Looking for leaflets

Leaflets

Leaflets rack

Average time to first fixation (seconds)

Time to first fixation

Average total visit duration (seconds)

Total visit duration

Ads

Retail Signage

Ads

Ads

Retail Signage

Ads

Seen 1.5% of

the visit time

10% of the

visit time

Looked at 6

times in total

How did Visit Scotland change the Information Centre?

Using eye tracking glasses in the field

Very easy to set up and start using

Users feel comfortable using them

Permission is needed – the glasses are not that discreet

The battery in the recording device can drain quickly

Using eye tracking glasses in the field

Crucial for calibration purposes

Allow you to mark out AOI’s

Required for aggregated gaze trails and heatmaps

Speed up the analysis process

May not be feasible to set-up

You may need a lot of blue tack!

Using eye tracking glasses

Manual analysis can be time consuming, but it is worthwhile with well defined objectives

Automatic analysis is really great!

Recordings of the user journeys are loved by the clients

AOI’s analysis in videos available without markers

How comfortable was it for you the wear eye-tracking glasses?

Very comfortable

Quite comfortable

Didn’t really notice/can’t

say

Quite uncomfortable

Very uncomfortable

How concerned did you feel about wearing “these” glasses in public?

Not at all concerned

Hardly noticed Somewhat Quite a bit Very much concerned

• In this Lightning Talk we would like to talk about novel techniques we employed in this project but also we are eager to share our experiences with using eye tracking glasses in the field research. Our client wanted to better understand the needs of visitors and how effective the layout of Tourist Information Centre is in answering those needs. Eye tracking was employed to help understand how visitors to Information Centre engage with it, which sections of the literature and merchandise shelving were looked at the most and whether the signage in the centre was noticed. 15 visitors to the centre were recruited to take part in the study, all intercepted as they entered the centre. We asked them to wear eye-tracking glasses and to use the centre to accomplish the goals of their visit. The ability to record these user journeys without constantly observing test participants was especially effective as it helped to make the whole testing session feel more realistic and avoided disturbing participants in any way. Data gathered from eye tracking glasses was imported into dedicated software package and analysed. Automatic analysis was performed on the demarked shelving. Manual coding analysis was also performed, focusing specifically on the amount of time participants spent looking at signage, advertising posters and retail shelves. The amount of and duration of these gazes were calculated in relation to total participants’ visit time. Based on the visitors’ journey recordings gathered with eye tracking glasses a ‘footfall heat map’ was created. Each time a person went to the particular area of the centre this occurrence was recorded and later mapped out in a form of a ‘heat map’ based on the frequency of visits. This helped our client understand where visitors go throughout their visit and which of the Information Centre’s areas receive more or less footfall. Findings allowed the client to both take remedial action in areas where the experience was not as effective as it could be, and to take advantage of the insight to maximise the revenue potential of various areas of the centre.

Anna Basista User Experience Consultant User Vision 55 North Castle Street Edinburgh EH2 3QA

Email: anna@uservision.co.uk

Web: www.uservision.co.uk

Credits/references:

• http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=1361797

• http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=1386554

• http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1161062

• http://www.tobii.com/

• http://makezine.com/2006/03/07/camera-records-eye-intere/