Faces and Viewing Behavior: An Exploratory Investigation

User experience is becoming increasingly important in gaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace. One way to improve user experience is by including images of faces. People are drawn to faces because paying attention to faces has played a significant role in human evolution. Hence, areas on a web page that typically receive less attention from users, such as the right side or below the fold, may benefit from the inclusion of images of faces. Although faces may be useful in attracting attention to particular places on a web page, they may also distract attention from key information. To test this possibility, we conducted two eye tracking studies in which images of faces were placed on areas of a web page that are shown to receive less attention. The results indicated that faces did not increase the number of people who viewed the areas where the faces were located, but that faces affected fixation patterns on these areas. Our results also showed that faces located above the fold of the web page negatively affected the performance of those who were completing tasks

Social presence and dishonesty in retail

Self-service checkouts (SCOs) in retail can benefit consumers and retailers, providing control and autonomy to shoppers independent from staff, together with reduced queuing times. Recent research indicates that the absence of staff may provide the opportunity for consumers to behave dishonestly, consistent with a perceived lack of social presence. This study examined whether a social presence in the form of various instantiations of embodied, visual, humanlike SCO interface agents had an effect on opportunistic behaviour. Using a simulated SCO scenario, participants experienced various dilemmas in which they could financially benefit themselves undeservedly. We hypothesised that a humanlike social presence integrated within the checkout screen would receive more attention and result in fewer instances of dishonesty compared to a less humanlike agent. This was partially supported by the results. The findings contribute to the theoretical framework in social presence research. We concluded that companies adopting self-service technology may consider the implementation of social presence in technology applications to support ethical consumer behaviour, but that more research is required to explore the mixed findings in the current study.<br/

Framing or Gaming? Constructing a Study to Explore the Impact of Option Presentation on Consumers

The manner in which choice is framed influences individuals’ decision-making. This research examines the impact of different decision constructs on decision-making by focusing on the more problematic decision constructs: the un-selected and pre-selected optout. The study employs eye-tracking with cued retrospective think-aloud (RTA) to combine quantitative and qualitative data. Eye-tracking will determine how long a user focuses on a decision construct before taking action. Cued RTA where the user will be shown a playback of their interaction will be used to explore their attitudes towards a decision construct and identify problematic designs. This pilot begins the second of a three phase study, which ultimately aims to develop a research model containing the theoretical constructs along with hypothesized causal associations between the constructs to reveal the impact of measures such as decision construct type, default value type and question framing have on the perceived value of the website and loyalty intentions

Watching People Making Decisions: A Gogglebox on Online Consumer Interaction

This paper presents a research study, using eye tracking technology, to measure participant cognitive load when encountering micro-decision. It elaborates and improves on a pilot study that was used to test the experiment design. Prior research that led to a taxonomy of decision constructs faced in online transactional processes is discussed. The main findings relate to participants’ subjective cognitive load and task error rates

Towards Predicting Ad Effectiveness via an Eye Tracking Study

This paper presents the pilot study of a project for which the main aim is to implement an evaluation methodology service for the identification of the best locations on Cypriot web space based on eye tracking studies. Advertising budget, social demographics and web usage are some of the factors that are being considered. During this pilot study, a description in existing patterns of advertisement placement on websites is first presented. Then we present the methodologies of two pilot studies where user data are collected with the use of eye tracking technologies in order to understand how users look at Web advertising and how effective each location is as well as Marketers’ questionnaire. Stimuli were three Cypriot websites with advertisements of various types and three locations: ads being static and animated, types being skyscraper and display ads and location varied around the page. Eye-tracking data are compared to ad choices of marketing managers in Cyprus who rated the ad position and it’s attention value. Results demonstrate the correlation between user attention, advert types and the value as rated by marketers. This pilot study revealed conclusions that could form the basis towards predicting ad effectiveness of webpages with the use of ad number, location, size, and type