Eye tracking in library and information science: a literature review

Does visual attention help? Towards better understanding and predicting users’ good abandonment behavior in mobile search

Purpose

Good abandonment behavior refers to users obtaining direct answers via search engine results pages (SERPs) without clicking any search result, which occurs commonly in mobile search. This study aims to better understand users' good abandonment behavior and perception, and then construct a good abandonment prediction model for mobile search with improved performance.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, an in situ user mobile search experiment (N = 43) and a crowdsourcing survey (N = 1,379) were conducted. Good abandonment behavior was analyzed from a quantitative perspective, exploring users' search behavior characteristics from four aspects: session and query, SERPs, gestures and eye-tracking data.

Findings

Users show less engagement with SERPs in good abandonment, spending less time and using fewer gestures, and they pay more visual attention to answer-like results. It was also found that good abandonment behavior is often related to users' perceived difficulty of the searching tasks and trustworthiness in the search engine. A good abandonment prediction model in mobile search was constructed with a high accuracy (97.14%).

Originality/value

This study is the first to explore eye-tracking characteristics of users' good abandonment behavior in mobile search, and to explore users' perception of their good abandonment behavior. Visual attention features are introduced into good abandonment prediction in mobile search for the first time and proved to be important predictors in the proposed model.

The effects of visual formats on Facebook health-related posts: evidence from eye movement analysis

Purpose

This study aimed to provide user-centered evidence for health professionals to make optimal use of images for the effective dissemination of health information on Facebook (FB).

Design/methodology/approach

Using an eye-tracking experiment and a survey method, this study examined 42 participants' reading patterns as well as recall and recognition outcomes with 36 FB health information posts having various FB post features.

Findings

The findings demonstrated that FB posts with text-embedded images received more attention and resulted in the highest recall and recognition. Meanwhile, compared to text-embedded images, visual only images yielded less effective recall of information, but they caught the viewers' attention; graphics tended to attract more attention than photos. For effective communication, the text features in FB posts should align with the formats of the images.

Practical implications

The findings of this study provide practical implications for health information disseminators by suggesting that text-embedded images should be used for effective health communication.

Originality/value

This study provided evidence of users' different viewing patterns for FB health information posts and the relationship between FB post types and recall and recognition outcomes.

Investigation on reading behaviors and cognitive outcomes of Facebook health information

Purpose

This study aims to understand how college students' personal and health-related characteristics are related to their reading behaviors and cognitive outcomes of Facebook health information through eye tracking data and cognitive outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

This study analyzed users' gaze movement data and results of recall and recognition tests to investigate users' reading patterns and their consequences with cognitive outcomes. The gaze movements are analyzed with eye tracking data including the average fixation count and time to first fixation.

Findings

The results of reading patterns show that Texts and Images are highly viewed and viewed immediately by participants when the posts were presented. There was no clear pattern with fixation counts to determine cognitive outcomes. However, the findings of study suggest that there is a clear pattern of reading Facebook posts with areas of interest (AOIs). Among five AOIs observed, participants viewed Images first and then Texts when a Facebook post is presented. On the other hand, they read Texts more carefully than Images. The findings of this study suggest that while images contribute to gaining users' attention, a clear and precise message needs to be delivered in text message to ensure readers' correct understanding and application of health information.

Originality/value

The user-centered evidence on reading behaviors and cognitive outcomes will make contributions to how health professionals and health organizations can make optimal use of Facebook for effective health information communication.

Peer review

The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-05-2020-0177

Impact of bookshelf locations using eye-tracking methodology

Purpose

This study aimed to understand better the user gaze behavior on bookshelves using eye-tracking technology.

Design/methodology/approach

An eye-tracking experiment in a public library with 11 participants was performed. The impact of vertical shelf location of books on the number of times the books are looked at, the impact of horizontal location and the relationship between user behavior and location impact were examined by the findings.

Findings

The results showed that the vertical location of books has a significant impact on the number of times the books are looked at. More than 80% of the time spent looking at bookshelves was spent on books on the top to fourth rows. It was also revealed that the horizontal location of books has a little impact. Books located on the left side of shelves will be looked at significantly more often than those on the right side. No significant relationships between type of user behaviors and location impact were observed.

Originality/value

The study explored the impact of the vertical location of books on time spent looking at bookshelves using eye-tracking methodology. Few published studies do such experiments to address user gaze behavior on bookshelves. The study explored that the vertical location of books has a great impact, and horizontal location has a little impact on user gaze behavior.

Eye-Tracking Studies of Web Search Engines: A Systematic Literature Review

This paper analyzes peer-reviewed empirical eye-tracking studies of behavior in web search engines. A framework is created to examine the effectiveness of eye-tracking by drawing on the results of, and discussions concerning previous experiments. Based on a review of 56 papers on eye-tracking for search engines from 2004 to 2019, a 12-element matrix for coding procedure is proposed. Content analysis shows that this matrix contains 12 common parts: search engine; apparatus; participants; interface; results; measures; scenario; tasks; language; presentation, research questions; and findings. The literature review covers results, the contexts of web searches, a description of participants in eye-tracking studies, and the types of studies performed on the search engines. The paper examines the state of current research on the topic and points out gaps in the existing literature. The review indicates that behavior on search engines has changed over the years. Search engines’ interfaces have been improved by adding many new functions and users have moved from desktop searches to mobile searches. The findings of this review provide avenues for further studies as well as for the design of search engines.

Eye tracking y usabilidad en ambientes informacionales digitales: revisión teórica y propuesta de procedimiento de evaluación

Resumen Considerando la tecnología eye tracking como método de colecta de datos originados por el registro del seguimiento visual de las personas, se propone como objetivo de este trabajo orientar conceptual y metodológicamente el desarrollo de futuras investigaciones que pretendan usar esta tecnología para la evaluación de la usabilidad en ambientes digitales informacionales. Fue usado un enfoque metodológico descriptivo y prospectivo para el desarrollo de este trabajo, a partir de un levantamiento bibliográfico, análisis de literatura y experiencias en trabajos previos. Como resultado, se obtuvo un conjunto de pasos que constituyen una propuesta de procedimiento para evaluación de aspectos de usabilidad usando la tecnología eye tracking. Se destaca que se encuentra un amplio panorama y configuraciones para evaluar usabilidad usando eye tracking. El procedimiento propuesto pretende guiar futuras investigaciones relacionadas; además se presenta un consolidado de métricas con un significado en términos de evaluación de aspectos de usabilidad. Concluyendo, entre los principales aspectos de usabilidad medidos durante la evaluación por métricas de eye tracking están: eficiencia en la búsqueda, interfaz y visibilidad y que el procedimiento propuesto, además de guía, garantizará que los objetivos propuestos en este tipo de investigaciones sean claramente formulados y cumplidos al igual que la validez de sus resultados.

Predicting readers’ domain knowledge based on eye-tracking measures

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the effect of domain knowledge on eye-tracking measures and predict readers’ domain knowledge from these measures in a navigational table of contents (N-TOC) system.

Design/methodology/approach

A controlled experiment of three reading tasks was conducted in an N-TOC system for 24 postgraduates of Wuhan University. Data including fixation duration, fixation count and inter-scanning transitions were collected and calculated. Participants’ domain knowledge was measured by pre-experiment questionnaires. Logistic regression analysis was leveraged to build the prediction model and the model’s performance was evaluated based on baseline model.

Findings

The results showed that novices spent significantly more time in fixating on text area than experts, because of the difficulty of understanding the information of text area. Total fixation duration on text area (TFD_T) was a significantly negative predictor of domain knowledge. The prediction performance of logistic regression model using eye-tracking measures was better than baseline model, with the accuracy, precision and F(β = 1) scores to be 0.71, 0.86, 0.79.

Originality/value

Little research has been reported in literature on investigation of domain knowledge effect on eye-tracking measures during reading and prediction of domain knowledge based on eye-tracking measures. Most studies focus on multimedia learning. With respect to the prediction of domain knowledge, only some studies are found in the field of information search. This paper makes a good contribution to the literature on the effect of domain knowledge on eye-tracking measures during N-TOC reading and predicting domain knowledge.