hhhmmm...

an even bigger problem...
[I just realized that is a pun. keep reading.]

The USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review is reporting on how Eyetracking points the way to effective news article design. In brief, it talks about how news design can influence where readers will cast their eyes on a page.

Eye tracking as a part of science has been around since the 1800's.

Eye tracking is a general term for research using techniques for measuring either the point of gaze ("where we are looking") or the motion of the eye itself relative to the head. There exist a number of different methods for measuring the movements of the eyes

To summarize the article and research used:

Coyne (who we interviewed for this column) stresses that crucial to understanding the testing results is an awareness of the user’s motivation or goal behind each task. Some of the testing scenarios included asking the user to "read the news" or "read/learn", making a number these results particularly helpful to journalists. She said eyetracking is valuable in these cases because it indicates not only where our users look, but where key usability problems exist.

"[With eyetracking] we can see that a user may navigate the page of an interface that houses the info she wants," she said, "but if the text is poorly presented, or the navigation is cluttered, or there are too many superfluous images so she cannot easily find what she needs. This is a lost opportunity."

All this seems innocuous enough. However, there were three parts to the research used and the third one can cause a problem for some people.

Conyne recommends designers avoid the generic pictures that are often used just for the sake of having a picture.

"For example," she said, "if an article is about a signature meal at a restaurant, say a tuna dish, display a scrumptious-looking picture of the plate of food. Don't show a generic picture of a spoon and fork, as many sites do."

When photos do contain people related to the task at hand, or the content users are exploring, they do get fixations. However, gender makes a distinct difference on what parts of the photo are stared at the longest. Take a look at the hotspot below.

Although both men and women look at the image of George Brett when directed to find out information about his sport and position, men tend to focus on private anatomy as well as the face. For the women, the face is the only place they viewed.



This image of George Brett was part of a larger page with his biographical information. All users tested looked at the image, but there was a distinct difference in focus between men and women.

Coyne adds that this difference doesn’t just occur with images of people. Men tend to fixate more on areas of private anatomy on animals as well, as evidenced when users were directed to browse the American Kennel Club site.

what is the title of that book...? Oh, yeah - Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus

but wait, wait... men look at crotches and women don't? okay, that makes sense for the women. but, but... what does that mean for the straight male?

hhhmmm...

just asking...