Frequently Asked Questions
What is an eye tracking interview session like?
Most interviews are only 10-15 minutes. This includes a 30 second calibration game, eye tracking, and a short questionnaire.
How does the eye tracker work?
The eye tracking unit has a camera and infrared lights. The infrared light is 14 times less powerful than that on the remote to your TV; it is safe. The light shines onto the viewer's face, marking the pupils and shining reflections off of the cornea of his/her eyes. The camera picks up this detail and with some very fancy mathematics calculates where the person is looking on the display.
The eyetracker allows us to collect data of where a person is looking (with the accuracy of .5cm) at any particular time, and how long (in milliseconds) they looked there. The raw data is lengthy as a record is logged every 20milliseconds. That's 50 records per second for each consumer. However, this exhaustive data is then used to create more helpful and manageable outputs. See examples of these outputs.
Do people have to wear 'funny' headgear when being eye tracked?
At THiNK, we use non-invasive eye trackers, meaning participants do not have to wear anything on their heads. They simply sit in a chair at a desk and look at a standard size (17") monitor, much like they would at home. The eye tracker sits in front or is integrated with the monitor, meaning participants hardly notice it. As long as the person does not move outside of the camera’s field of view, the eyetracker stays on target throughout the session.
Can people who wear glasses be eye tracked?
Yes, people wearing single vision lenses and contact lenses are eye tracked easily. Varifocal and Bifocal lenses can make it more challenging (though not necessarily impossible). As eye tracking technology improves, we'll have less trouble with these types of glasses.
When should I do eyetracking?
Eye tracking can be most helpful in 4 common situtations:
- Identifying Cognition/Engagement
- Identifying Habitual Behaviour
- Ending ‘Bun Fights’
- Diagnostically
How will it help me?
Eye tracking gives insight into subconscious behavior. It records real actions and responses instead of self reported contemplations.
THiNK’s consultants use eyetracking to determine cognitive processes related to visual stimulation such as decision making, brand recognition, engagement etc. Because the sessions are electronically recorded, we are able to do quantitative analysis in terms of timing, fixation data, spontaneous reactions etc.
- For the creative:
- Diagnostic findings NOT prescriptive
- Push creative boundary with safety net of cost effective pre testing.
- Diagnostic findings NOT prescriptive
- For the Planner/Client:
- Similar price point to focus group with:
- Implicit & explicit insights
- 5 day turnaround
- Larger sample
- Quant data
- Definitive findings
- Measurable ROI
- Results comparable across norm database
- Similar price point to focus group with:
How large a sample is needed for eye tracking?
The necessary sample size varies depending on the complexity of the visual stimuli and the instructions given to the participant. We design all of our standard tests so that a sample of 30-50 is appropriate. To learn more about this, see this article explaining sample size.
What outputs can I get from eye tracking?
THiNK Eye Tracking generates unique visual outputs to help you better understand how people are engaging with your communication. See examples of these outputs.
How does this approach help us understand advertising?
Eye-tracking allows us to see where visual attention is focused and allows us to make recommendations so your customer’s attention is where it should be and not distracted to other elements that would undermine the power of the ad.
Is eye tracking expensive?
It doesn't need to be. Our omnibus and rapid field testing approach makes eye tracking fast and affordable. Take a look at our pricing.
Does it tell us about people's emotions?
We make no attempt to try and measure this using eyetracking. At the time of writing the ability to reliably predict a respondent's emotional state based on eye tracking is unproven and highly problematic to say the least.
We currently use traditional research techniques to gain an understanding of the emotional response to an advertisement. People generally have good availability of their emotional state; if you ask them if they liked or disliked an advertisement they will be able to tell you and you don't need to put them in a MRI scanner to answer this type of question!