Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
audience wanted an image-based network, so now we are tweaking our design to make the
visual content more engaging and productive.
* * *
This method is a
feedback loop
: a built-in process for user reactions followed by design
corrections. Once the corrections are made, and successfully tested, the loop is completed,
and the current iteration remains in place for a while. More changes might be made as more
people use the product, but the overall framework is in place.
I've described how this is working in a current project, highlighting the Silverback test-
ing software, and it's visual approach. Another useful tool for observing user actions is
eyetracking
. Behavioral researchers and scientists have used this method for over a cen-
tury, and it's clearly a natural step for digital designers. When subjects visit a web page,
their first reactions come through sight. They take in most, or all of a page's data though
their eyes. The natural visual routes a user will take become clear when we can detect eye
movements.
Eyetracking reveals the movements of the eye, and where the eyes halt. One of eye-
tracking's proponents, Alfred L. Yarbus, wrote in the topic
Eye Movements and Vision
:
“Eye movement reflects the human thought processes; so the observer's thought may be
followed to some extent from records of eye movement (the thought accompanying the ex-
amination of the particular object). It is easy to determine from these records which ele-
ments attract the observer's eye (and, consequently, his thought), in what order, and how
often."
The truth in Yarbus's contention has only become more obvious in the digital world.
Today's eyetracking software shows us what attracts and repels the eye, and what the eye
is likely to pass over. This data is often vital to success in digital design.
Heatmapping
is similar, but where eyetracking begins with the eye and its movements,
heatmapping charts elements on a page, and whether the eyes are attracted to them. Are
most users' eyes drawn right or left? Up or down? Will a new element in the center get
adequate attention? Should it be moved? Enlarged? Scaled down? Does a certain color or
shape work in a particular spot? Heatmapping tells the designer where most eyes are likely
to go with the present design. From that, he or she can make decisions about which visual
elements stay, and which must change.
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