Here’s a strange offer: Would you like to learn about eyetracking?
Eyetracking? If you recall, eyetracking was Number 9 in our list of techniques for improving your conversion rate.
Here’s how it works:
1. Fancy hardware is used to track a user’s eye movements as they look at a website. (So the user needs to be physically in front of a computer monitor that is set up with eyetracking hardware, which usually means they have to visit a usability lab.)
2. The data is then analyzed, revealing where the user clicked and looked. They are then asked questions about their experience.
3. Finally, the website owner gets an actionable report containing heat maps of where the users looked, where they clicked, and how much they scrolled. This gives valuable insights into how they can improve their website.
We’re currently carrying out some exciting eyetracking research with the team at Eyetools (who work with companies like The New York Times, American Express, Sprint and Yahoo!), and are looking for volunteers to take part in our study.
If you’ll be near downtown San Francisco (the financial district near Bart and parking) any time between Wednesday Feb 4 through Friday Feb 20, 2009, please sign up to participate in the tests or get a tour of the facility. You can sign up here. (Please note: you won’t be paid, which participants typically are, BUT you will get an “insider’s behind-the-scenes view.”)
What’s in it for you?
- you’ll get a tour of the Eyetools lab
- you’ll learn about the processes, technology and results that eyetracking achieves
- you’ll get a sneak preview of our research findings, before we tell the world
But here’s the main benefit: it’ll turn you into a better marketer. The first time we personally participated in eyetracking tests was in 2006, and we were amazed at how unaware we had previously been of how we interacted with websites.
For example, it turns out that we weren’t just blind to banner ads—we had developed a blindness to Flash animations. This was much to the disappointment of one website owner, who had just spent most of his budget on creating a beautiful Flash animation in the center of the screen…which we completely ignored.
If you are able to volunteer to take part in this research, then please sign up here to book your appointment.
If you can’t get to downtown San Francisco between Wednesday Feb 4 and Friday Feb 20, 2009, don’t worry. We’ll let you know the results of our exciting research when it’s ready.
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This looks very interesting and very powerful indeed! I am keen to find out more. By the way, how does this tool differs from what StomperNet offered – Scrutinizer? Which claims to do eye tracking and is offered free.
Andy,
Scrutinizer does not do eyetracking — eyetracking and what Eyetools does is very different.
Eyetracking takes a group of real live people and measures where they look, taking into account all of the strange interesting things that occur in people’s brains that ultimately will affect what people will see on a webpage.
Scrutinizer, on the other hand, is a tool that works to represent an approximation of how foveal vision works in your eye, to represent that at any one time when a person is looking at a place on the page that the rest of the page will be blurry. It’s a fun visual representation tool that’s worth checking out since it’ll make you see your pages in a new light (excuse the pun). Andy Edmonds, the creator of Scrutinizer, did a good job.
So eyetracking, eye tracking heatmapping, or Eyetools are different from scrutinizer or any tool that applies machine vision to approximate how people look at a page.
Hi guys,
That’s pretty amazing and I’m sure you’re going to find exciting stuff. I’m just wondering what’s the best alternative to eyetracking. Using tools like Clicktale?
Thanks and take care!
Davor
Thanks for your comment Davor,
ClickTale Heatmaps allow you to see what users are paying attention to on your site by tracking mouse activity (which is very different to eyetracking, though still very useful).
If you can’t afford eyetracking, we’d recommend you carry-out Number 10 in our list of techniques for improving your conversion rate…
“Poor-man’s eyetracking”. Carry out some usability tests, and about 5 seconds into each test, ask the person what they have looked at so far. They usually find it easy to tell you.
Hope that helps!
So if you don’t have the money for the eyetracking is there other tools that you would recommend such as Clicktale to get a better understanding of your visitors. I know you don’t get the verbal communication with Clicktale. Any thoughts or recommendations?
Hi Eric…thanks for your comment.
We’ve got a free report that lists all the tools we like to use for understanding website visitors better…and most of them are free!
Check out these tools that reveal why people abandon your website.