Recent technology developments have made eye-tracking
systems more affordable and less cumbersome. Many
members of the HCI community will therefore consider
employing this method in usability research and
assessment. This paper, provides an overview of the eye
movement data that can be collected, what is involved in
analysing them, and what it can add to current HCI
research and usability assessment practice. We argue that,
whilst much work is required to develop the use of eyetracking
as a practitioner’s method, it can provide valuable
objective data about the impact of visual design on human
performance. To illustrate this point, some preliminary
results of a study into web page usage are reported. The
results are examined with regard to explaining task
performance, user physiology as well as in the assessment
of the difficulties and the potential behind eye-tracking
