Keeping an Eye on WearablesUsing Eye Tracking to Measure the User Experience of Wearable Technology

Andrew Schall, Principal ResearcherKey Lime Interactive

@AndrewSchall

Lots of wearables

Made by lots of companies

Purchased by lots of consumers

Wearbles are fun and cool, but aren’t always useful or usable.

@AndrewSchall

Most wearable devices end up living in here most of the time

How do we measure the UX of wearable devices?

Observation-only and/or self reported data is limited for wearable research

Would you use this to perform surgery?

Eye tracking provides insights that are used to fine tune an experience.

Eye tracking glasses can be used to study user’s wearable behavior

SELF REPORT• Satisfaction ratings• Difficulty ratings• Think-aloud protocol

OBSERVATIONAL• First click• Task performance• Time on task• Interaction behavior

PHYSIOLOGICAL• Eye movements• Electrodermal

activity (EDA)• Pupil dilation

FixationA single instance of where the eye momentarily stops

SaccadeThe rapid eye movement from one fixation to the next

Scan pathA series of sequential fixations and saccades

Eye Tracking Terminology

Fixation

Margin of error

MeasuringGlanceability

Adjective, Digital Technology.

Noting or relating to information on an electronic screen that can be understood quickly or at a glance.

Glanceable

Source: Dictionary.com

Hours Minutes Seconds

Video courtesy of Fitbit

Video courtesy of Pebble

If the information is not glanceable, it doesn’t belong on a wearable.

@AndrewSchall

Measuring Glanceability

Number of fixationsNumber of times they looked at the screen.

Individual fixation durationAmount of time they looked at each element.

Total glance durationTotal amount of time spent looking at the screen.

Good Glanceability

Video showing example of a short glance at a smart watch while performing another task

Poor Glanceability

Video showing example of a confusing smart watch app with poor glanceability

Measuring Glanceability

15s5s3x

6s3s2x

25s3s10x

MeasuringEngagement

Visual attentiveness is the key to successful wearable engagement.

@AndrewSchall

Measuring Engagement LevelsNumber of times they visually attend to and interact with each screen.

1x4x3x2x 2x

12x in 5 minutes

Insert eye tracking wearable pilot videos

Video showing example of a smart watch user frequently glancing at their watch

Area of Interest (AOI) identified for smart watch analysis

Real World Mapping

Video showing example of real world mapping software

Benchmarking Wearable UX

§ What is a typical amount of time that users look at a smart watch display?

§ How frequently does a user glance at the display in a given period of time?

§ What percent of time does the user spend passively lookingat a display vs. actively interacting with it?

§ How long does it take users to notice and visually attend to a notification on their smart watch?

§ How much time does a user require to look at a smart watch display before they can commit to memory what they saw?

REAL WORLD TRACKINGHow do we evaluate wearable experiences outside the lab?

“Too often, there are subtle nuances embedded in an app that require hours of meticulous playing just to figure out how to do something.”

TIP to programmers. Don't design service and hospitality apps like adventure strategy games.”

- iTunes Customer Review for Alaska Airlines Smartwatch App

@AndrewSchall

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Video showing example of eye tracking used in an ethnographical study

Eye Tracking Glasses

• Total freedom of movement• Highly portable• Better for qualitative

PROS

• Labor intensive data analysis• Battery limitations• Can’t wear prescription glasses

CONS

Optimizing the UX of Wearables

Designing for glanceability§ Fewer fixations§Shorter fixations§Minimal overall fixation duration

Designing for visual attentiveness§ Increased number of glance instances§ Increased amount of interactivity

Looking for a few good research partners

The Book

Eye Tracking in User Experience Design

Real-world examples from over twenty leading UX professionals

Actionable findings and recommendations based on eye tracking research

Insights into cutting-edge applications of eye tracking, including use in social media, mobile, gaming, e-commerce, and emotional design

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Q & AWhat questions do you have about wearables & eye tracking?