Yeliz Yesilada
Simon Harper
ABSTRACT
This paper presents an eye-tracking study that examines how people use the visual elements of Web pages to complete certain tasks. Whilst these elements are available to play their role in these tasks for sighted users, it is not the case for visually disabled users. This lack of access to some visual elements of a page means that visually disabled users are hindered in accomplishing these tasks. Our previous work has introduced a framework that identifies these elements and then reengineers Web pages such that these elements can play their intended roles in an audio, as well as visual presentation. To further improve our understanding of how these elements are used and to validate our framework, we track the eye movements of sighted users performing a number of different tasks. The resulting gaze data show that there is a strong relationship between the aspects of a page that receive visual attention and the objects identified by our framework. The study also shows some limitations, as well as yielding information to address these short-comings. Perhaps the most important result is the support provided for a particular kind of object called a Way Edge - the visual construct used to group content into sections. There is a significant effect of Way Edges on the distribution of attention across tasks. This is a result that not only provides strong evidence for the utility of re-engineering, but also has consequences for our understanding of how people allocate attention to different parts of a page. We speculate that the phenomenon of 'Banner Blindness' owes as much to Way Edges, as it does to colour and font size.
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Index Terms
- Validating the use and role of visual elements of web pages in navigation with an eye-tracking study
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Reviews
Brad D. Reid
Eye tracking-measuring the motion of the eye-has an extended history, with the most recent application involving how individuals view Web pages. This paper "investigates how sighted people use and perceive visual elements and features of Web pages to complete certain tasks." This is connected to previous studies by the authors that involved visually disabled users. Web page designers will find this study of special interest. Travel objects are visual cues such as headers and logos. They are strongly related to items on a Web page that receive visual attention. There are reference points, identification points, and way edges. An evaluation function called Dante is used to identify how the participants interacted with the Web pages. This discussion is very well written, with figures indicating how the study was conducted for a representative Web page. The authors indicate ways to improve accessibility of badly designed pages and include a variety of references for additional study. I recommend this paper. Online Computing Reviews Service
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