Eye Tracking is Darn Fascinating

I recently spent some time digging deeper into the details of eye tracking, and quickly realized that I could spend most of a day reading about it. The idea/practice of recording eye movements and methodically analyzing the data to gain insight on everything from how a user views webpage content, to how people walk or drive, is tremendously interesting. Since this is a marketing blog, let’s move away from the walking and driving. My colleague Ashley Martin directed me toward an eye tracking study conducted by Oneupweb which focused on the study of social media sites Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, and specifically around how users treated the search functions on those pages.

The point of an eye tracking study like this of course is to ultimately better understand consumer behavior. Us marketers know that’s the goal, because once we’re able to understand more of what the consumer is doing and why, then we can work to shape the behaviors we’re looking for. Eh, it sounds so evil when you put it that way but that’s how it works!

Back to the study and why I found it worthwhile. The study looked at scan paths, duration of first fixation, and length of fixation within the first thirty seconds of the search process. To start, let’s check out how a user looks at their Facebook homepage (image source: Oneupweb).

Nothing too surprising there, though I’m somewhat taken aback that there is barely a hint of green surrounding the red notification in the bottom right. I feel that when I have notifications I’m looking down there pretty quickly. Does that surprise you?

Looking at the Twitter homepage below is a little surprising to me, as I don’t feel like I view the search/trends area that strongly, but I’d never really know that for sure unless I was tested. And that’s another thing: ever since I started looking more into eye tracking, I’m paranoid when browsing websites, trying to analyze my own habits. Anyway, here’s the heat map:

Now begins the meat and potatoes of Oneupweb’s study. Looking at the gaze plot visualizations of a Facebook search result, you can see the progression of fixations the user went through. (For more information on gaze plot visualizations, click here).

The sponsored ads in the right column were viewed before users looked at the second and third results on the page. Sponsored ads truly get noticed. If you can come up with a creative and relevant Facebook ad, people are going to see it… period.

Again, you can learn more within Oneupweb’s short but sweet study on the subject. It begins to delve into a bit of areas of interest, which areas do users have a fixated gaze on for at least 1/10 of a second. Looking at the eye tracking sequence a person takes in moving from one area to the other can be extremely telling. Many times you’re likely to be surprised at the results.

In short, there’s a lot to feel good about when it comes to advertising on social networks!