Farmville Eye tracking Study

This short video illustrates eye-gaze tracking with the Mirametrix S1 Eye tracker while working through Zynga's Farmville tutorial.

For a first time player, a game can be confusing because they don't know where to look and how to play. Tutorials can help users learn how to play, but are the tutorials effective? In this video you can clearly see how well certain elements of the tutorial catch the users eye, such as flashing arrows and stars.

Using the Mirametrix S1 Eye-tracker to track gaze position and the Viewer application for gaze overlay and screen recording, it is possible to tell exactly where the user's attention was at all times during game play. See our website for more information on how we can help you improve your products: http://mirametrix.com

The eye-gaze position is shown in red, the mouse position in green, left mouse clicks in blue and right mouse clicks in yellow. The size of the red circle is proportional to the duration of the fixation (stable point-of-gaze). Fixations are connected by a red line (saccades or quick jumps of the eyes).

The brain typically processes information only when the eye is fixating, so fixations are a good indication of where the users cognitive processing (thinking) is taking place. The peripheral vision can provide queues on where to look next in the game, which the eye then jumps to with a fast saccade, to view with the fovea or high resolution part of the eye for a detailed look. During a saccade the visual system is suppressed and the user doesn't "see" anything until the eye slows down, as the image on the eye is blurred with motion.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Farmville
• Zynga
• eye
• gaze
• tracking
• fixation
• saccade
• study
• analysis
• playability
• usability
• Mirametrix
• Research