Revisiting web design guidelines by exploring users' expectations, preferences and visual search behaviour

Tzanidou, E.; Minocha, S.; Petre, M. and Grayson, A. (2006). Revisiting web design guidelines by exploring users' expectations, preferences and visual search behaviour. In: People and Computers XIX — The Bigger Picture (McEwan, T.; Gulliksen, J. and Benyon, D. eds.), Springer, London, UK, pp. 421–438.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-84628-249-7_27

Abstract

The majority of existing Web design guidelines have been derived by expert heuristic evaluations, apparently without involving the users themselves. In this paper we report two studies of an on-going research programme in the area of eye tracking in which we are investigating the relationship between the users' expectations, preferences, and visual search behaviour. The first study captures the position of first fixations while the users look for cues of the brand identity and services of the site. The second study examines how quickly users adapt to an unfamiliar design layout during repeated exposures by measuring the position of first fixation, time to target fixation and sequence of fixations (scan path). In both the studies, the eye tracking data is supported by qualitative data from pre- and post-session questions which elicited the users' expectations and preferences about the target Web-link.