Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The Effect of Information Forms and Floating
Advertisements for Visual Search on Web Pages:
An Eye-Tracking Study
Mi Li
1
,
2
, Jingjing Yin
1
, Shengfu Lu
1
, and Ning Zhong
1
,
3
1
International WIC Institute, Beijing University of Technology
Beijing 100022, P.R. China
lusf@bjut.edu.cn
2
Liaoning ShiHua University, Liaoning, 113001, P.R. China
limi 666@emails.bjut.edu.cn
3
Dept. of Life Science and Informatics, Maebashi Institute of Technology
Maebashi-City 371-0816, Japan
zhong@maebashi-it.ac.jp
Abstract.
Users' visual search on a Web page is impacted by informa-
tion forms, information layout, Internet advertisements (ads for short),
etc. Text and picture are two important forms of expressing the infor-
mation on Web pages, and it is generally through the two forms of title
that users can search their desired information. This study investigates
the effect of the two basic information forms and floating ads on visual
search using eye-tracking. By analyzing the visual search time and pupil
diameter, the results show that it is easier to find the picture than the
text; whether the target is text or picture, floating ads do not significantly
impact people's visual search time, however, it would make people bored.
1
Introduction
A website includes a series of related Web pages, and each Web page contains
various forms of information. In general, the title of information on a Web page
is expressed as the form of text or picture, and it is through the two forms
of title that users search their desired information. However, the users' visual
search on Web pages is different from the search engines like Google, which will
be impacted by many factors [1] - [4], such as information layout, information
forms, and Internet advertisements.
The study about text and picture reported that picture had the superiority
effect to text [5]. Carroll et al. [6] through the eye movement study also found that
users would look at the picture information first, and then read the text. Brandt
also indicated that majority of users paid more attention to the picture, whereas
the text was read at the end in his eye tracking studies [7]. Rayner et al. [8]
reported that when participants looked at the print ads, the average fixation
duration in picture of ads was significantly longer than text, which also provided
the evidence that people pay more attention to picture than text. However, these
