Burning Questions
Apr
When the Eye Wanders, We Can Tell You Why: Our Guide to Eye Tracking
jerry9789 0 comments Burning Questions
When the eye wanders, a skilled eye tracking technician can tell you why. Eye tracking is the technique of following a subject’s visual gaze, and discovering what attracts the eye in certain directions. Eye tracking provides helpful clues to the optimum design of everything from a simple printed page to a vast department store layout; it can also give product designers good information about the attractions of certain colors, shapes and features. Technical advances over the past 10 years have allowed the science of eye-tracking to move out of the scientific laboratory and into the toolkits of marketing professionals.
Apr
A common, popular conception of market research consists of women trying on lipstick in a small room with a two-way mirror, a la Mad Men. It’s amazing to think that in ten years this image may be drastically altered, most likely replaced by one of people browsing grocery store aisles with an EEG band strapped to their heads (Quite possibly, this EEG band actually will be part of a virtual reality machine digitally simulating the supermarket, but that’s a discussion for another day).
Mar
I remember receiving gifts as a child and animalistically ripping open carefully wrapped boxes to get at the contents inside. Honestly, I suppose I still do the same today on occasion. Although some thought has certainly gone into the wrapping of these gifts, often the packaging went—and still goes—unappreciated. The same can be said for packaging at the everyday level; many people think only about the chips inside the bag or the contents inside a shipping container, not about the complexity behind the development of the bag or the container themselves.
Mar
How Does Virtual Reality Improve Insights from Market Research?
jerry9789 0 comments Burning Questions
Virtual reality – Regardless of age, to some the idea may seem fantastical, vague, perhaps belonging only to science fiction. To others, virtual reality is a logical technological next step, or past step, actually, as it’s been in use in various forms for quite some time now. With regards to marketing research, although virtual reality technology is not the norm, its presence is increasing.
Mar
You know the old saying: something that sounds too good to be true…is.
Webcam eye tracking has been touted as a sort of redeemer: you don’t have to pay those ugly meanies at Tobii, SMI, ASL, etc. those exorbitant prices to track the eye with expensive cameras, extra infrared lighting, fancy monitors, and elaborate software. Easy as you please, you can just use the camera embedded in your computer and voila! — eye tracking results at Wal Mart prices. Well, Aga Bojko has done us all a great service by conducting practical tests with webcam eye tracking and exposing these fallacies. Her results are here.
Mar
Eye tracking technology has evolved rapidly over the past dozen or so years so that studies employing eye tracking within a true 3D VR environment have become a reality. Surprisingly, many eyetracking studies still employ first generation technology. Here’s a brief review of how eyetracking has evolved: First generation – simple eye tracking using a static image with no interaction between the respondent and the image being viewed. There is little or no use of virtual reality technology. Useful output is restricted mainly to findability metrics.
Feb
Recently released US Consumer Expenditure Survey data confirm what eyetracking studies have been telling marketers for some time. Our Nimbus eyetracking studies revealed a widening gulf between the shopping patterns observed between younger generations and their older counterparts over the past 5 years. The eyetracking data revealed differences in dwell times and rejection rates among the different age cohorts.
Feb
Clients often ask whether the results from a virtual study reflect actual shopping behavior in a real store. During a recent oral care study, we measured a 97% correlation between dollar value of purchases on a brand-by-brand basis made by respondents buying in a virtual store versus reported industry sales. The Pearson Correlation Coefficient was significant at better than 95% confidence level for results summed up across more than 13 brands represented in the study. This high degree of correlation meant that all sorts of different stimuli could be tested for effectiveness in a virtual reality study with confidence that the results could be applied to real marketing strategies.
Feb
Mobile device usage in China has surpassed the US and indications are that penetration rates will continue to climb faster in China than either the US or Europe. Mobile device users are far more likely to access the Internet and do so more often than other internet users. Understanding these mobile device users is going to pose a major challenge to marketers since they tend to ignore traditional surveys. It stands to reason that any research needs to make use of the same technology platforms.
Jan
Is mobile eye tracking better than tracking from a computer monitor? There’s debate. Most mobile eye tracking solutions provide analog output in real time. In other words, researchers and observers can “see what the respondent is seeing” in the moment. That’s great for qualitative insight, but what kind of precision or quantitative reliability does it provide? Not much. On the other hand, eye tracking from a computer monitor in virtual reality provides real coordinate data, precise time coding, and in some cases fixations on special areas of interest, like a brand name on a label. So far so good. Is there any downside to eye tracking from a computer monitor? Some people claim the virtualizations are clumsy and unreal. But with each new year that critique fades, as the virtual reality simulations are approaching the real world much better. The odds seem to be in favor of tracking the eye from a monitor. Maybe there’s somebody out there who sees it differently?
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