Eye Contact ::: (matchic) labs

Eye Tracking, Mobility, User Experience & Advertising Research, etc. by Eric Guitteaud, co-founder of Matchic Labs.

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Vision Precedes Action, Understanding & Emotion

This short video (2′30″) shows what happens when users interact with a mobile app : much more than just the few actions directly observable on the screen.

Matchic Labs Eye Tracking helps digital teams to understand the entire story behind mobile users’ behaviors : What do they look at before acting on a mobile app? What do they miss? Where and why do they have difficulties.

Being able to identify users’ issues in true mobile situation (smartphone in hand) is key in app user testing. It is now possible with Matchic Labs Eye Tracking.

For more infos, contact us by email ( contact [at] matchic [dot] com ) or via the "Ask me anything" button at the top.

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Eye Tracking on iPhone Reveals Linkedin Invisible Confirmation

Unless you use LinkedIn app all the time, you may have noticed that when you want to invite a new contact with the mobile app it takes 2 or 3 trials before succeeding. It recently happened to me during a typical networking pause at a conference, while I was quickly inviting a person to connect.

Since it seemed to be a recurrent trouble with the app, I decided to check this UI issue by recording a user's interaction on iPhone, with Matchic Labs' eye-tracking solution.

The video is an eye-tracking recording. It shows the eye gaze (moving red spot) of a person using the LinkedIn app for iPhone. Matchic Labs‘ eye tracking technology is independent from the user’s motion, which is key to understand visual interactions on mobile apps.

As you may notice in this recording, user's fixations are concentrated in the action zone near the "add contact" button. But the confirmation appears at the bottom of the screen. 

As we know, peripheral vision allows us to detect moving objects or change of contrast/colors. In this case, the confirmation has little chance to be noticed, due to the visual competition of the landing screen. It appears with a sliding movement which makes it even more noticeable, and user's gaze never reach the "Invite Sent" confirmation layer.

When asked how it went, the user of the recording said that he did not see where to invite a contact, after two (invisibly successful) trials.

To avoid this problem, it's better to place the confirmation feedback close to the action zone.

A question ? Contact us via the “Ask Me Anything” button or directly via email : contact [at] matchic [dot] com

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What People See While Scanning a Product : iPhone Eye Tracking on a M-Commerce App

M-Commerce is growing fast. Customers can shop outside the store while being waiting in line at a post office or during their commute time. And when they are shopping in a physical store, they can use their mobile device to compare prices, get information on a product, or decide to buy online after seeing the product in their hands.

Supermarket chains are trying to take a market share on their clients' smartphones by offering apps that provide customers with key services.

One classic use case consists in 3 steps that must be easy for everyone : scan a product, get information, and select (order or put in a shopping list).

This video is an eye-tracking recording. It shows the eye gaze (moving red spot) of a person using the m-commerce app of Casino, a French supermarket chain. (note: Casino is not a client of Matchic Labs). Matchic Labs' eye tracking technology is independent from the user's motion, which is key to understand visual interactions on mobile apps.

Scanning is one among other issues of this app (given the fact that it took approx. 1 minute to display the product info the 1st time the user tried). As you may notice, the user has some difficulties to trigger scanning, and to adjust the product distance from the smartphone. Tapping on the device screen is usually what users do when nothing happens within a couple of seconds. In this example, when scanning has eventually worked, the app asks to confirm that it caught the right bar code. The user needs to read a long code and confirm. Then the product information shows up. 

This is a long path with useless steps (display bar code and confirm) that miss to give a useful feedback during scanning, making the task cumbersome.

Bar code display may be good for debugging but does not bring any value to users. On the other hand, giving feedbacks when user is trying to scan the bar code could be much more efficient. Those feedbacks may be visible thru peripheral vision, and help user dealing with the scan feature - without wondering if the app is working or not. Haptic or sound feedback may also be useful to confirm the app caught the code.

In another post we will show a better solution for this small but key step of m-commerce task.

A question ? Contact us via the “Ask Me Anything” button or directly via email : contact [at] matchic [dot] com

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Mobile Eye Tracking on a Luxury Retail App for iPad

This video shows the eye gaze (moving red spot) of a client using high-end retailer Saks Fifth Avenue app for iPad.

Matchic Labs' eye tracking technology provides accurate data for user experience analysis on iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android smartphones & tablets, in true mobile situation.

EEG (brainwave patterns) provides additional metrics on client's engagement level.

A question ? Contact us via the “Ask Me Anything” button or directly via email : contact [at] matchic [dot] com

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A nice video of a brain responding to Argentinian tango.

The Tango Brain from Petri Toiviainen on Vimeo.

According to this article of ScienceNordic.com, Finnish researchers have developed a new method that reveals how different music features activate emotional, motor and creative areas of the brain.

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Augmented Reality in Advertising : Size Does Matter!

This video is a mobile eyetracking recording of an augmented reality (AR) app. It shows the eye gaze of a user discovering Viking Footwear's offer through "augmented advertising".

The augmented reality ad campaign, originally published in Norway, allows users to navigate and have a look at three different shoe models for outdoor aficionados. It is simple and nicely made : readers can easily move around the 3D virtual objects, look at details of the shoes, and zoom in while getting closer. 

The user experience is pleasant because AR is well adapted to this kind of interaction on small or mid size objects, and navigation is straightforward. 

With our mobile eye-tracking technology [1], we tested the augmented ad for Mercedes-Benz C class (see video below) and felt a little disappointed.

The AR looks cool (as it was for the very nice AR bike [2]), but somehow, the user feels as if he was looking at a "reduced model on a table". Even if the eye gaze goes for typical eye catchers (headlights, Mercedes-Benz star on the radiator, hood, tail lamps, edges of roof), the experience does not offer enough details. Moreover, the option changes, by the touching of navigation buttons, are too discrete of an effect on the AR model and zooming in for details is not really possible.

Augmented reality in advertising definitely benefits from novelty effect. It can offer a truly interesting way for the brand to engage with customers. However, to be totally effective, it may have to adapt to the users' need for visual details, find a way to drive attention and overcome the technical aspect of these kinds of interactions.

[1] Matchic Labs' eye tracking technology gives accurate data for user experience analysis on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android smartphones & tablets, in true mobile situation. EEG (brainwave patterns) gives additional insights on user experience during product view.

[2] see our post on Mercedes AR bike: "Mobile Eyetracking on augmented advertising"

A question ? Contact us via the “Ask Me Anything” button or directly via email : contact [at] matchic [dot] com

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A nice post about Apple's strategy in the publishing industry

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Interesting article from CNN about technology integration in cars and how it may transform our driving experience.

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Mobile Eye Tracking on a Travel App for iPad

This video shows the eye gaze (small moving pink circle) of a user buying a high speed train ticket on Voyages-Sncf.com app (1).

The French national company recently modified its booking app for iPad in order to introduce a new feature. The idea here is to invite users to add personal information for them and their family in order to expedite future booking processes.

There is a lot to say about this app and potential optimization. I will just focus on a few observations, based on the first 2 minutes of the process.

Matchic Labs’ eye tracking technology makes it possible to accurately measure eye fixations in true mobile situations: this recording shows how this user (who holds the iPad in her hands), interacts with the application. She has just a few minutes to buy a return TGV ticket from Paris to Biarritz, a wonderful city in South West of France.

Even if the map occupies most of the screen real estate, the interaction first occurs in 17% of the space. The user notices the falling pins on the map but the usefulness of this animation needs to be confirmed : it attracts very few fixations and no touch. What really matters are date and time, along with departure and arrival cities. Readability during this part of the process is key, and eyetracking fixation analysis can help. Then comes the search button localization. It's interesting to note that the personal infos feature get some fixations but, since it's not relevant at this point of the user's workflow, she may just neglect it.

What about the search result? Eye tracking data show whether key infos are visible or not, and what confuses the user. For instance, price is nicely worked (for peripheral vision) but travel time infos may need a rework, as well as result navigation.

EEG (brainwave patterns) provides additional metrics on user experience and engagement.

A question ? Contact us via the “Ask Me Anything” button or directly via email : contact [at] matchic [dot] com

(1) : This eye-tracking recording was made in early November 2011.

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Some useful data from Nielsen

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A new app called Jildy, released for the iPhone last week, sorts your Facebook friends into lists of those who interact with one another, so you can read or post to just those people quickly.

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On Thursday, Apple will stop accepting app submissions until after Christmas, and developers are scrambling to beat the deadline.