Tobii has now released a new extensive white paper describing how eye tracking can be used to complete user tests on mobile devices. There are several challenges when using an eye tracker together with a mobile phone, both in the physical setup and in the human physiology. The paper explains the challenges and presents three different setups that works.
You can read and download the white paper Using eye tracking to test mobile devices on Scribd here
Recently another video clip was released on YouTube by Herbstwerbung showing how a Tobii x120 eye tracker was used to track the eye movements when using an iPhone. Watch the clip below:
A lot of people has asked us for advice on how to use Tobii eye trackers for studying user behavior on mobile devices like mobile phones and pda:s. Next week we will release a extensive white paper on this topic where we are comparing a few different eye tracker setups. We have already now published a video on YouTube describing these setups and the pros and cons. Watch the clip below and return to my blog or keep your eyes open next week and you’ll be able to download and read the white paper.
Today Tobii launched an interesting new competition, the annual EyeTrackAwards. The award recognizes research and projects that have generated new knowledge and insights by using eye tracking technology. The winner of the EyeTrackAwards will receive a 5 000 EUR prize.
Another part of the EyeTrackAwards is a stipend that supports unique and outstanding academic research projects with free eye tracking equipment from Tobii.
Yesterday Tobii released a new white paper on eye tracking and eye tracking technology. The aim of the paper is to give a brief introduction to the human visual system, and to explain how eye movements are recorded and processed by Tobii Eye Trackers. Some basic concepts and issues related to remote eye tracking and eye movement data interpretation are also briefly discussed.
It is a good document for beginners to read to gain more knowledge on eye movements and eye tracking, but also experienced eye tracking users can find the paper interesting as it explains more about how Tobii’s technology works.
Rob Stevens from Think Eyetracking and Bunnyfoot has now released a summary on YouTube from his talk on why you need eye tracking in web usability studies. The videos were recorded during the The Great Eye Tracking Debate in May 2009 (read summary from the event HERE). In the clip Rob mainly talks about the PEEP method, or retrospective think aloud (RTA) in combination with eye tracking, as he argues that the concurrent think aloud (CTA) method has flaws as a lot of processes are subconscious when performing a task for example on a web page. I have previously written about this method here on my blog.
Rob’s main arguments for using eye tracking in web usability studies is that eye tracking enables:
1. Better user tests by using retrospective think aloud instead of concurrent think aloud
2. Optimize designs by doing mass user testing (quantitative eye tracking tests)
3. Helps non specialist stake holder engage with usability - and take actions based on the usability findings
Watch the two YouTube clips below:
UPDATE
Kara Pernice’s speech from the Great Eye Tracking Debate has now been made available on YouTube. Watch it below:
We have some very interesting speakers lined for the first Tobii EyeTrackConf in Copenhagen on January 25-26 2010. This conference is focusing on eye tracking related research in psychology and linguistics. Please have a look at the website and sign up here. See you in Copenhagen
A good way to get a glimpse of what is possible to do with eye tracking is to read the different customer cases available on the Tobii website. I’ve collected all the PDFs below, just click on the text to download a document.
E-prime is a software package from PST used for different types of behavioral and psychological experiments, for example reaction time experiments. With a separate plug-in (E-prime extensions for Tobii) it possible to also include eye tracking in an E-prime experiment.
One very frequent question I get is how to integrate eye tracking data in an E-prime experiment and if it is possible to collect data in both Tobii Studio and E-prime in the same experiment. After the release of Tobii Studio 2.0 a few weeks back it is now possible to automatically create scenes in Tobii Studio based on event sent from E-prime, this makes it much easier and quicker to use both programs in the same experiment.
Last week I made a very quick introduction video on how to use Tobii Studio and E-prime to collect eye movement data from a Tobii eye tracker in the same experiment. You can watch the YouTube video below. The E-prime experiment used in this video is a demo experiment available for download from here: http://eyetracking.me/tobii/eprimetobiistudio.zip
We have just completed a short guide on how to use Retrospective Think Aloud with eye tracking in usability research which is aimed at usability researchers that want to try out this method. The guide covers the following topics:
What is Retrospective Think Aloud and Why is it Suitable for Eye Tracking Studies?
What Should I Consider When Designing My Eye Tracking Usability Study?
How Do I Select the Participants?
How Do I Create Tasks?
How Do I Design The Study So I Get the Kind of Data I Want?
How Can I Collect The Participants Thoughts and Opinions?
Pre- and Posttest Questions
Interview Protocol
How Can I Make Sure That the Testing Will Run According To Plan?
What Else Should I Consider When Designing the Study?
What Special Considerations Do I Need to Have When Designing a Cued RTA Study?
When Should the Retrospective Session be Positioned Within the Test?
We are finally releasing the white paper explaining the results from a small research project we did this summer at Tobii where we compared the value of using Retrospective Think Aloud (RTA) in web usability research. I have previously posted the results from the study here on my blog. The main finding was that using eye tracking results as a cue during the post task interview stimulated users to talk much more and produce much more interesting comments.
Title:
Retrospective Think Aloud and Eye Tracking - Comparing the value of different cues when using the retrospective think aloud method in web usability testing
Abstract
Research has shown that incorporating eye tracking in usability research can provide certain benefits compared with traditional usability testing. There are various methodologies available when conducting research using eye trackers. This paper presents the results of a study aimed to compare the outcomes from four different retrospective think aloud (RTA) methods in a web usability study: an un-cued RTA, a video cued RTA, a gaze plot cued RTA, and a gaze video cued RTA. Results indicate that using any kind of cue produces more words, comments and allows participants to identify more usability issues compared with not using any cues at all. The findings also suggest that using a gaze plot or gaze video cue stimulates participants to produce the highest number of words and comments, and mention more usability problems.
There are several challenges when using an eye tracker together with a mobile phone, both in the physical setup and in the human physiology. The paper explains the challenges and presents three different setups that works.
