The BBC recently featured an article on eye tracking – which offers some key learnings for people working in the world of research. We are all largely aware of what eye tracking is and what it can do – but the reality is that it is a fairly underused methodology. The most recent GRIT report cites only a quarter of both clients and agencies as using it. Equally, only a quarter are considering using it. However, if we are to believe Oscar Werner (President of Technology at Tobii) this could be about to change.

Werner doesn’t stand on a pedestal and say “market researchers will start to use eye tracking more”. Far from it. In fact he doesn’t even list commercial researchers as a key user group. He does list our academic counterparts however. But what does Werner say that suggests this?

The Consumer Is Our Pied Piper

The major suggestion is that 2015 is predicted to be the year when eye tracking is released as a consumer product to enhance viewing immersion. Looking back at the adoption of research methodologies, there is a strong trend that if consumers start adopting a technology, we soon follow. Cases in point include:

  • The internet – consumer society went worldwide web bonkers, the panel industry was born.
     
  • Consumers started investing more time and money in smart phones – mobile surveys became an industry buzzword.

Let’s Go Back to Basics

One of the current uses of eye tracking is to control computer game characters – navigationally and instructionally – to create a more immersive and engaging experience. This screams potential for the research industry. If such technology could be used to do basic research practices such as answering scales and ranking responses, the survey experience could become a lot less cumbersome for consumers – driving engagement and increasing data quality in the process.

Let’s Get the Players in the Game

The current usage of eye tracking for a more immersive gaming experience can also open the door for gamification approaches. Gamification has been knocking at the door for some time now and the most recent GRIT report suggests it has reasonable consideration going forwards (a third from both clients and agencies). Could an eye operated approach to gamification be a catalyst for this consideration to be turned into action? Hopefully a combination of this with consumer uptake of eye tracking will sell the idea in to clients.

As always, there are some caveats to the potential growth of eye tracking:

1. If the consumer commercialisation of eye tracking does not have the expected growth, the likelihood is that commercial researchers will lose interest. The consumer is our pied piper – if they do not feel comfortable using eye tracking for their own purposes, researchers will likely be deterred by the notion of using it in a research environment.

2. Eye movement as a measurement of interest is widely accepted, but we are yet to see how this is linked to purchase likelihood and more importantly, actual purchase behaviour. The connection of these metrics will strengthen the case for eye tracking. Its absence – in an industry becoming ever obsessed with the term ‘actionable’ – is likely to sink eye tracking’s case.

3. There is also a grim commercial reality to consider. As we try to sell in new approaches to traditionally conservative clients, partnered with our growing alignment with procurement, the cost of eye tracking needs to be more palatable for all parties involved. This is intrinsically linked to the first caveat. Simply put, if eye tracking becomes a mass produced product it will generate favourable economies. If it remains niche – used largely by healthcare and academics – then pricing is likely to be an issue.

So what can proponents and developers of eye tracking take from this going forward?

  • Keep the commercial research industry abreast of the consumer uptake of eye tracking. The sooner we know about the hopeful success of its adoption, the sooner we can use this as a methodological hook.
     
  • Nothing is likely to get client side approval more than a killer case study showing how eye tracking has result in real business benefits – this work needs to be broadcasted as and when it is executed.

 

By Jack Miles, Associate Director at Northstar Research Partners. 

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