Eye Tracking in User Experience Design by Bergstrom, Schall

Eye Tracking in User Experience Design by Bergstrom, Schall is the book authored by Jennifer Romano Bergstrom, Ph.D and Andrew Jonathan Schall and published in 2014 by Morgan Kaufmann is an imprint of Elsevier. The copyright belongs to Elsevier Inc.

• Areas of Interest (AOIs). Regions of a display that researchers define and classify by shape -- quantitative data can be calculated for these regions.
• Attention distribution. The percentage of total visual attention allocated to a set of webpage features.
• Attentional salience. The power of visual elements to attract low-level, generally automatic visual attention.
• Banner blindness. Unintentionally not "seeing" ads or information that look like advertisements.
• Breadcrumbs. A navigation utility designed to let users know where they are within the site and how to get back up to higher levels within the information architecture.
• Bricklet. A small window to aid navigation on a web page.
• Capture rate. Percentage of eye-tracking data sampling based on length of recording. The capture rate is affected by calibration, time spent looking on the screen, and visual acuity. The higher the percentage, the more eye-tracking data present in the recording.
• Card sort. A research method used to understand how end users expect items (e.g., menu items) to be organized and the labels that should be used for each category of an information architecture.
• Cognitive interview. A method of interviewing users to obtain feedback about how they understand text and terminology and how they determine responses to (survey) questions.
• Corneal reflection. A method used by modern eye trackers to detect and track the location of the eye as it moves. It uses a light source to illuminate the eye, which then causes a reflection that is detected by a high-resolution camera.
• Cutscene. Scripted short movies displayed during noninteractive moments in video games.
• Drift. Slow and small difference between the user's gaze on fixated visual target and the true location of the target.
• Dwell time. Total time the gaze is within an area of interest, including all fixations and saccades.
• Electrodermal Activity (EDA). Measures the electrical conductance of the skin. There are several names for it, including: electrodermal response (EDR), galvanic skin response (GSR), psychogalvanic reflex (PGR), skin conductance response (SCR), and skin conductance level (SCL).
• Electroencephalography (EEG). Records electrical activity of the brain by placing electrodes on the scalp.
• Element viewing. The percentage or number of participants that view a given web page feature during a given task.
• Eye gaze. The location of an individual's eyes at a given point in time.
• Eye tracker. A device that measures eye positions and movements to understand where an individual is looking.
• Fixation. The pause of the eye movement on a specific area of the visual field.
• Fixation count. The number of times the eye gaze pauses in a specific spot (e.g., within an area of interest).
• Foveal. A region of human visual perception that is highly detailed and provides complete clarity about what a person is looking at.
• Front loading. Starting a piece of content with information-rich words.
• Gaze angle. The direction of gaze relative to the head.
• Gaze opacity map. An inverse map of compiled fixation data. The opposite of a heat map, it is best used to highlight areas on the interface that received fewer fixations. It is also known as a Spotlight map.
• Gaze plot. A visual representation of fixations and saccades -- circles represent fixations; often the sizes of circles represent duration.
• Gerontechnology. The intersection of gerontology and technology, often with the aim of improving the functioning of older people in daily life through the use of technology.
• Gestalt principles. In visual perception, the regions of the visual field where portions are perceived as grouped or joined together and are thus segregated from the rest of the visual field.
• GSR. Galvanic skin response (see Electrodermal activity)
• Heat map. A visualization that uses different colors to show fixation count or duration.
• I-TRAC. Five steps in the process of preparing eye tracking data for analysis: identify, trim, remove, aggregate and code.
• Information Architecture (IA). The combination of organization and labeling of navigation systems.
• Information foraging. A theory that humans search for information in much the same way that our ancestors searched for food. We constantly assess whether the information we could potentially gain is worth the energy we would expend to gather that information, or whether it would be potentially more efficient to move to a different source of information.
• Information scent. Words and phrases that are more likely to capture our attention because they match our intent.
• Likert scale. A psychometric scale for questionnaires named after its inventor, psychologist Rensis Likert. It is used for scaling responses in survey research (rating scales).
• Low literacy. Having limited ability to use printed and written information successfully.
• Macro negative space. The space between blocks of content (e.g., gutters between columns of text).
• Mental model. The mental constructs people have of themselves, others, the environment, and the things with which they interact. Mental models are constructed based on prior experiences, and they shape expectations for future experiences.
• Micro negative space. The space within a block of content (e.g., the spacing between lines).
• Microsaccade. Quick, short saccade to maintain fixation on a visual target.
• Multimodal redundancy. Using a variety of senses (e.g., visual and auditory) to help older people with age-related functional limitations to access digital information.
• Overlay. Each visual element that is part of the user interface when playing video games.
• Paper prototype. A paper model of an interface that allows a product to be evaluated with users before being completely developed. Also referred to in low-fidelity testing in which there is limited functionality and navigational capabilities.
• Parafoveal. A region of transition within human visual perception in which the image becomes gradually less focused as a person moves from the fovea into the peripheral area.
• PDP. Acronym for Product Description Page. A web page devoted to imagery, pricing and information regarding a specific product.
• Perceptual flow. The most common order in which elements of a web page are viewed for the first time.
• Peripheral. The largest region of human visual perception. It has very poor acuity and is optimized to pick up movements and contrasts.
• Plain language. Communication your audience can understand the first time they read it.
• Pupillometry. The measurement of changes in pupil diameter.
• Rapid Assessment of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM). A word recognition test that uses common words to assess a patient's literacy level. It takes about three minutes to administer and score. Commonly used in health literacy research.
• Regressive saccades. Rapid eye movements that are backtracked such that a user looks back at content previously seen; can be indicative of confusion or uncertainty.
• Retrospective Think Aloud (RTA). After a usability task is completed, the participant is asked to recall what they had been thinking as they worked on the task. This is typically done as the participant watches a video replay of their task. When used in conjunction with eye tracking, the participant is often shown a video replay of their eye movements and asked what they had been thinking.
• Saccades. Rapid movements of the eye from one fixation to another.
• Satisfice. A decision-making strategy of choosing an option that is "good enough" rather than spending cognitive effort on finding the best possible choice, combined form of "satisfy" and "suffice."
• Scanability. The ease that something (e.g., a screen) can be visually covered and understood.
• Scene camera. Capture videos of the scenes, so researchers can calculate where users are looking, and then overlap eye movements onto the scenes for visualization. Used in mobile eye-tracking research.
• SERP. Search Engine Result Pages.
• Smooth pursuit. Eye movement that closely tracks a moving object by steadily matching its velocity.
• Think aloud. Participant in a usability study is asked to think out loud as they work on the usability task so that there is a running commentary of what they are thinking and feeling, moment by moment. The UX team is able to get a better understanding of what is happening to participants and the process they are going through as they work on a task.
• Tree test. A research method for validating the intuitiveness of an information architecture by having participants perform tasks using the menu structure.
• Tremor. Small oscillation of the eye during fixation.
• Usability test. Technique in user-centered design to evaluate a product by testing it with actual end users. Typical measures are accuracy, efficiency, and user satisfaction.
• Visual affordance. Design cues that suggest how to interact with an object.
• Visual hierarchy. A visual order for guiding users in viewing a web page. This order is designed by manipulating the attributes (e.g., size, location) of perceptual elements (e.g., text, image) on the page.
• Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT). A norm-referenced test that measures the basic academic skills, including word reading and sentence comprehension.