The eyes don’t lie. That’s why Eye Tracking is such a great tool to improve your brand or website’s digital performance. The eyes are the gateway to identifying subconscious insights around your brand and its digital content. Eye Tracking is the key to this as it confirms what a shopper looks at, in what order, with what frequency plus how easily the content is consumed.
The following are some guiding principles on how to use Eye Tracking to improve digital performance.
1. Shoppers consume content differently on websites versus mobile apps
While total browse and check out times are typically comparable for website versus mobile shopping, shoppers tend to view more product pages but with shorter duration on the mobile app. In fact, Eye Tracking has shown that shoppers view 2X more product pages on a mobile app but with less time per page view than on websites. Ensuring your product is easily “findable” to allow it to be in the shoppers browsing/consideration set – particularly for websites is critical.
2. Attract & retain shopper’s attention by placing important content (or brands) on the left
Eye Tracking has shown that shoppers spend 2/3rds of their time looking at the left side of a web page. So, it’s important to place appealing content or have your brand/product prominently placed on the left-hand side of a page to attract and retain their attention.
3. Shoppers gaze at pages in horizontal patterns
When shoppers land on a page, Eye Tracking has confirmed they look at information first horizontally and then vertically. Usually, these gaze patterns are in either a “F” or “E” shaped pattern. So, it’s important to start your shopper on the left-hand side of the page with important content and then “lead” them with additional content and visuals toward the right using an F or E expected viewing pattern. If you are a brand, it’s important you try and get a left-hand page placement to increase the odds you will be part of a shopper’s product consideration set.
4. Keep your content in digestible chunks
When browsing or buying shoppers don’t like to work any harder than they have to. Eye Tracking has shown that content that is hard to consume (complicated visuals or long-written descriptions) are often ignored as shoppers don’t want to invest the time (or energy) in figuring it out. So, it’s important to keep content in smaller, digestible chunks. Often, Eye Tracking shows that by just simplifying your content, shopper engagement goes up considerably.
5. Know which content is scanned and what is actually read
80% of content on a typical website is scanned versus read based on our Eye Tracking findings. Understanding which content is engaged is important to ensure your key information is actually being viewed/read. This is also why we recommend the “RULE OF THREE” meaning that shoppers will typically engage in 3 pieces of information when browsing. So, it’s important to prioritize your top three pieces of information and then making sure using Eye Tracking that your information is being effectively engaged.
As you can see, Eye Tracking can provide a layer of subconscious behavioral insights that a typical survey cannot. It can be the key to the design and placement of effective content to achieve a great shopper experience. We suggest you give it a try in your next digital research project.
Other articles related to Eye Tracking:
