On the registration of eye movements in the process of usability testing
The first of the Russian usability companies that began using eye-tracking technology in their work was the USABILITYLAB laboratory, which was announced in mid-June.
So far, eye-tracking technology, which is not well known to Russian site owners, is based on the registration of the user's eye movements. According to research, it is quite useful for usability testing of user interfaces and, as reported by representatives of USABILITYLAB, allows developers to "see your product through the eyes of the user." With its help, you can find out exactly where the user looks when looking at the screen, how his glance moves, how long he searches for this or that information on the site, and what he for some reason does not notice.
In an interview with TelNews, Dmitry Satin, head of the laboratory at USABILITYLAB, and Anatoly Kostin , senior researcher at the Institute of Psychology, RAS, tell us more about eye-tracking technology and the prospects for its use in our country.
- Recently, USABILITYLAB announced the acquisition and “introduction to regular practice” of eye-tracking technology. What does this really mean? What specific new services can you offer to your customers in this regard?
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- Let's first say two words about usability testing in order to better understand the value of an eye movement analysis technique. Usability testing is an experimental method for evaluating the user interfaces of a product (for example, a site, but not only), built on attracting its real or potential users. Users (profiles that necessarily correspond to the portrait of the target audience) perform tasks related to the purpose of the product. For example, for a tourist site such a task could be the selection and ordering of a tour to any country. Tasks are taken from life, that is, they are realistic.
We do not tell the user exactly how to solve the problem, but observe how he copes with it. Most usability tests performed at the end of the project reveal problems that are sometimes so critical to the product that one has to conclude that the product is not suitable for use. There are, however, sometimes pleasant exceptions .
For our client, the problems found are of relative value. He, first of all, needs to know how to fix the detected defect. In order to answer this question, you have to contact the user. For this, the method of “thinking out loud” is most often used - they ask the user to comment on what he thinks about, explain how he makes decisions and how he understands certain elements of the user interface with which he interacts.
This method, although it gives a lot of hints, is not protected from distortion. First, not everyone knows how to talk about what they think — special skills are needed for this. Secondly, research shows that a person’s behavior changes when asked to comment on what he is doing. The user is transformed, as it were, into a guide describing interfaces. He begins to pay attention to what he would not pay attention to if he worked silently.
It turns out that we need such objective methods that would allow us to understand the user's behavior without asking him to explain what he is doing. One of these methods is the analysis of eye movements. Due to the high cost of technology, which allows to see where the user is looking, this method is not available to all companies that provide such services. We decided that the quality of the results of our work above all else, and began to work on the issue of acquiring the appropriate equipment.
With the acquisition of a special camera, the essence of the service has not changed. This is all the same usability testing. But the result we give qualitatively and quantitatively different. The client personally sees where his users are looking. We get the opportunity to answer new questions, the solution of which was not available before. For example, to calculate how much time the user spent looking at a particular element of user interfaces, how long it took, and by what path the user's gaze reached the target (desired) object. The reliability of the conclusions obtained on these data is much higher than on the presentation by the user of what he thought.
- Describe how the process of usability testing of user interfaces with the use of eye-tracking technology in your company?
- The process on the structure, as I said, remains the same. But now in front of the user under the monitor (if we are testing a website or a desktop application) there is a black object that looks like a box. It is this device that records the movement of the eyes.
In the process of testing, the facilitator (the person who organizes it) communicates with the user from another room and sees him through a translucent mirror. On his monitor, the facilitator sees the user's screen and movements of his eyes in real time. This helps him to understand why the user, for example, hesitated.
Data recorded during testing is analyzed. Heat distribution maps of users' attention, eye movement diagrams, statistics on “zones of interest”, etc. are built.
- How expensive will it be to use such technology to test the usability of a site?
- I think my answer will surprise you (here and further from the first person the words of Dmitry Satin - approx. Ed.). We did not change our prices after purchasing new equipment. There are two reasons for this: on the one hand, the method is new enough and time must be allowed for customers to feel its value; on the other hand, internal ethics does not allow raising prices only because we have become more professional.
Of course, we will come to the need to raise the price of usability testing using the eye detection technique, but for now we are delaying this moment.
- Why was USA-BILITYLAB precisely selected Tobii eye tracking equipment?
- At the time of selection, the X120 Tobii camera seemed to us to be a universal solution, allowing it to be used for testing not only computer interfaces, but also products with which the user can interact via TV, mobile devices, even explore how the eyes “work” when reading printed materials . For example, we have adapted the camera for testing payment terminals. Even the staff of Tobii praised us for such a clever decision.
But now we are exploring other types of equipment for recording eye movements. For example, special glasses that are produced by the German company ManGold International .
- To whom, besides online stores, eye-tracking technologies can be useful for doing business on the Web in the first place?
- I have to destroy the myth that customers of usability services are online shopping. Most of these companies save money so much that they delay their own development. It would seem that for them the improvement of user interfaces should bring money the very next day, and therefore they should pay a lot of attention to this issue.
Our practice shows that this is surprisingly not the case. A company must reach a certain level of maturity in order to understand simple things: there is nothing more important for a business than the efficiency (effectiveness) of its clients.
Therefore, usability testing is now more popular among software developers, mobile operators, developing their non-voice services, banks that promote their self-service systems (Internet banking and payment terminals, ATMs).
- According to your observations and research - what most often distracts users from the information that the site owner would like to convey to them?
- Distract banners - this is obvious. But users learn to deal with them. They begin to force them out of their consciousness, and this turns into new problems. If the interface element looks like a banner, then the user cannot find it. Sometimes horizontal banners in the middle of the page “break” it so much that the user does not perceive either what is above the banner, or below, depending on which edge of the page the banner is closer to.
- Tell us about your testing of a dating site using eye-tracking technology and its results.
- I can not disclose the details, because we are associated with customers non-disclosure agreements. I'll tell you about a funny experiment, which my colleagues put in a joke. They chose a photo of several attractive and not very dressed girls and showed it on a computer to one of the employees. The employee didn't have to do anything except look at the girls. Then the observers told the subject what kind of girl he liked more than others. The result of this joke declined stunning, hitting the target was very accurate. A person can hide his preferences, but his glance betrays them.
- In the case of eye-tracking, doesn’t a problem arise that the user can, roughly speaking, look at one thing, and click with the mouse on something completely different and different in the case of different users?
- No, it does not. On the contrary, users working with complex interfaces often have mouse movements following their gaze. It's like driving your finger along the lines of a book when you are still not reading well - it helps to concentrate. The same effect is observed in inexperienced or overloaded users.
- It is known that the so-called “besklikovye interfaces” have already been invented for people with disabilities - when actions, usually performed with a mouse, are performed only with the help of the eyes. Do you think this technology has prospects for distribution among healthy users?
- We must understand that the equipment is not cheap yet. Not everyone can afford it. Russian disabled people, I think, are deprived of the opportunity to use such technologies, and in the West they can receive it (sometimes free of charge) from funds engaged in the rehabilitation of people with disabilities.
For healthy people, the feasibility of using such technologies is not yet clear, although numerous studies are being conducted on the problems of gaze control, and not only computer technology. For example, to control with busy hands or remote technical devices, although it seems that for this purpose it is better to use conventional remote controls. The fact is that the eye is constantly moving and the person cannot fully control these movements, which means either the control should be large enough and stable (like a virtual keyboard for the disabled), or serious errors will occur. For example, a pilot of a military aircraft, whose hands are engaged in piloting, points his gun at the target not with his eyes, but with head turns, having a special optical sight on his helmet. The head is easier to control and "unambiguous" than the eyes.
So far, eye-tracking technology, which is not well known to Russian site owners, is based on the registration of the user's eye movements. According to research, it is quite useful for usability testing of user interfaces and, as reported by representatives of USABILITYLAB, allows developers to "see your product through the eyes of the user." With its help, you can find out exactly where the user looks when looking at the screen, how his glance moves, how long he searches for this or that information on the site, and what he for some reason does not notice.
In an interview with TelNews, Dmitry Satin, head of the laboratory at USABILITYLAB, and Anatoly Kostin , senior researcher at the Institute of Psychology, RAS, tell us more about eye-tracking technology and the prospects for its use in our country.
- Recently, USABILITYLAB announced the acquisition and “introduction to regular practice” of eye-tracking technology. What does this really mean? What specific new services can you offer to your customers in this regard?
')
- Let's first say two words about usability testing in order to better understand the value of an eye movement analysis technique. Usability testing is an experimental method for evaluating the user interfaces of a product (for example, a site, but not only), built on attracting its real or potential users. Users (profiles that necessarily correspond to the portrait of the target audience) perform tasks related to the purpose of the product. For example, for a tourist site such a task could be the selection and ordering of a tour to any country. Tasks are taken from life, that is, they are realistic.
We do not tell the user exactly how to solve the problem, but observe how he copes with it. Most usability tests performed at the end of the project reveal problems that are sometimes so critical to the product that one has to conclude that the product is not suitable for use. There are, however, sometimes pleasant exceptions .
For our client, the problems found are of relative value. He, first of all, needs to know how to fix the detected defect. In order to answer this question, you have to contact the user. For this, the method of “thinking out loud” is most often used - they ask the user to comment on what he thinks about, explain how he makes decisions and how he understands certain elements of the user interface with which he interacts.
This method, although it gives a lot of hints, is not protected from distortion. First, not everyone knows how to talk about what they think — special skills are needed for this. Secondly, research shows that a person’s behavior changes when asked to comment on what he is doing. The user is transformed, as it were, into a guide describing interfaces. He begins to pay attention to what he would not pay attention to if he worked silently.
It turns out that we need such objective methods that would allow us to understand the user's behavior without asking him to explain what he is doing. One of these methods is the analysis of eye movements. Due to the high cost of technology, which allows to see where the user is looking, this method is not available to all companies that provide such services. We decided that the quality of the results of our work above all else, and began to work on the issue of acquiring the appropriate equipment.
With the acquisition of a special camera, the essence of the service has not changed. This is all the same usability testing. But the result we give qualitatively and quantitatively different. The client personally sees where his users are looking. We get the opportunity to answer new questions, the solution of which was not available before. For example, to calculate how much time the user spent looking at a particular element of user interfaces, how long it took, and by what path the user's gaze reached the target (desired) object. The reliability of the conclusions obtained on these data is much higher than on the presentation by the user of what he thought.
- Describe how the process of usability testing of user interfaces with the use of eye-tracking technology in your company?
- The process on the structure, as I said, remains the same. But now in front of the user under the monitor (if we are testing a website or a desktop application) there is a black object that looks like a box. It is this device that records the movement of the eyes.
In the process of testing, the facilitator (the person who organizes it) communicates with the user from another room and sees him through a translucent mirror. On his monitor, the facilitator sees the user's screen and movements of his eyes in real time. This helps him to understand why the user, for example, hesitated.
Data recorded during testing is analyzed. Heat distribution maps of users' attention, eye movement diagrams, statistics on “zones of interest”, etc. are built.
- How expensive will it be to use such technology to test the usability of a site?
- I think my answer will surprise you (here and further from the first person the words of Dmitry Satin - approx. Ed.). We did not change our prices after purchasing new equipment. There are two reasons for this: on the one hand, the method is new enough and time must be allowed for customers to feel its value; on the other hand, internal ethics does not allow raising prices only because we have become more professional.
Of course, we will come to the need to raise the price of usability testing using the eye detection technique, but for now we are delaying this moment.
- Why was USA-BILITYLAB precisely selected Tobii eye tracking equipment?
- At the time of selection, the X120 Tobii camera seemed to us to be a universal solution, allowing it to be used for testing not only computer interfaces, but also products with which the user can interact via TV, mobile devices, even explore how the eyes “work” when reading printed materials . For example, we have adapted the camera for testing payment terminals. Even the staff of Tobii praised us for such a clever decision.
But now we are exploring other types of equipment for recording eye movements. For example, special glasses that are produced by the German company ManGold International .
- To whom, besides online stores, eye-tracking technologies can be useful for doing business on the Web in the first place?
- I have to destroy the myth that customers of usability services are online shopping. Most of these companies save money so much that they delay their own development. It would seem that for them the improvement of user interfaces should bring money the very next day, and therefore they should pay a lot of attention to this issue.
Our practice shows that this is surprisingly not the case. A company must reach a certain level of maturity in order to understand simple things: there is nothing more important for a business than the efficiency (effectiveness) of its clients.
Therefore, usability testing is now more popular among software developers, mobile operators, developing their non-voice services, banks that promote their self-service systems (Internet banking and payment terminals, ATMs).
- According to your observations and research - what most often distracts users from the information that the site owner would like to convey to them?
- Distract banners - this is obvious. But users learn to deal with them. They begin to force them out of their consciousness, and this turns into new problems. If the interface element looks like a banner, then the user cannot find it. Sometimes horizontal banners in the middle of the page “break” it so much that the user does not perceive either what is above the banner, or below, depending on which edge of the page the banner is closer to.
- Tell us about your testing of a dating site using eye-tracking technology and its results.
- I can not disclose the details, because we are associated with customers non-disclosure agreements. I'll tell you about a funny experiment, which my colleagues put in a joke. They chose a photo of several attractive and not very dressed girls and showed it on a computer to one of the employees. The employee didn't have to do anything except look at the girls. Then the observers told the subject what kind of girl he liked more than others. The result of this joke declined stunning, hitting the target was very accurate. A person can hide his preferences, but his glance betrays them.
- In the case of eye-tracking, doesn’t a problem arise that the user can, roughly speaking, look at one thing, and click with the mouse on something completely different and different in the case of different users?
- No, it does not. On the contrary, users working with complex interfaces often have mouse movements following their gaze. It's like driving your finger along the lines of a book when you are still not reading well - it helps to concentrate. The same effect is observed in inexperienced or overloaded users.
- It is known that the so-called “besklikovye interfaces” have already been invented for people with disabilities - when actions, usually performed with a mouse, are performed only with the help of the eyes. Do you think this technology has prospects for distribution among healthy users?
- We must understand that the equipment is not cheap yet. Not everyone can afford it. Russian disabled people, I think, are deprived of the opportunity to use such technologies, and in the West they can receive it (sometimes free of charge) from funds engaged in the rehabilitation of people with disabilities.
For healthy people, the feasibility of using such technologies is not yet clear, although numerous studies are being conducted on the problems of gaze control, and not only computer technology. For example, to control with busy hands or remote technical devices, although it seems that for this purpose it is better to use conventional remote controls. The fact is that the eye is constantly moving and the person cannot fully control these movements, which means either the control should be large enough and stable (like a virtual keyboard for the disabled), or serious errors will occur. For example, a pilot of a military aircraft, whose hands are engaged in piloting, points his gun at the target not with his eyes, but with head turns, having a special optical sight on his helmet. The head is easier to control and "unambiguous" than the eyes.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/28203/
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