More on the usefulness of eyetracking

June 13, 2006 | Posted by stuartchurch | Filed under Psychology, Usability, User research  

After Michael Hatscher’s critique of eyetracking a couple of weeks ago, it’s very interesting to see that Jared Spool also has reservations. Spool’s conclusions, based on observing hundreds of eyetracking tests, are very similar to the theoretical objections raised by Hatscher:

...we began to question what the eyetracker was actually trying to tell us. It seemed to us that what the user focused their gaze on was not necessarily what they were seeing. So, if the eyetracker doesn’t tell us what a user sees, what does it tell us? I’m not sure.

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I'm Stuart Church, a user experience consultant with Pure Usability in Bristol, UK. Sensorydrive is my personal blog and covers user experience design, information architecture, product design, psychology, research methods, perception and pretty much anything else that takes my fancy! You can find out a bit more about me if you want...