1. Generation Y, Web
Design, & Eye Tracking
Soussan Djamasbi, Marisa Siegel, Tom Tullis
Taylor Seale, Iheanyi Ekechukwu, Romeo Kwihangana, Jake Flynt
2. Who is Generation Y?
Individuals ranging from 18 to 31 years-old
1st generation with technology and internet since childhood
82,000,000 people spending $200 billion annually
That’s as much as HALF of the spending economy
Makes them a LARGE and economically POWERFUL generation
3. What does Generation Y like?
- Main large image
- Celebrities
- Search feature
- Little text
4. Why is visual appeal important?
“If it looks pleasant, I trust it.”
- Generation Y User
More visual appeal
More trust
More trust causes an INCREASE in returning users
5. Two-Tiered Experiment
Holistic interface evaluation through an online survey
For consistency, only looked at retail pages
Most popular sites then used with eye-tracking technology
Tracking data evaluates the effectiveness of a site’s elements
6. Holistic Evaluation Setup
50 sites randomly selected from top 100 on the Consumer
Satisfaction Index
Each evaluated by experts, 1 point for each category
Mean - 1.94
Median - 2.0
If:
Score > Median – High Appeal Group
Score < Median – Low Appeal Group
7. Holistic Evaluation Participants
98 internet-adept participants, from 18 to 31 years old
○ 55 male, 43 female
○ Part college students, part Fortune 100 employees
Subjects participated via e-mail or an online forum
8. Holistic Evaluation Procedure
Subjects shown 50 web pages, randomly ordered
Rated pages on visual appeal, used five-point Likert Scale
Ratings ranged, from “not at all appealing” to “very appealing”
not at all
appealing
neither appealing
nor unappealing
very
appealing
9. Holistic Evaluation Results
Pages in high appeal group earned a higher visual appeal
rating than those in the low appeal group
Presence of ANY of the four characteristics INCREASED
ratings
10. Eye-Tracking Setup
Took top three most liked and
disliked pages from holistic
evaluation
Analyzed eye movement with
unobtrusive eye-tracking
software
Example of a Tobii 1750 in use
12. Eye-Tracking Procedure
Rate the six pages, using the same five-point Likert Scale
During rating, eye–tracking measured fixation and gaze path
13. Eye-Tracking Results
After the eye-tracking experiment, the researchers:
1. Analyzed subjects’ fixation via heat maps
2. Performed an order analysis of fixation results
3. Analyzed the effects of visual appeal rating on fixation
14. Heat Maps
Level of fixation represented by a heat map
Fixation is a gaze longer than 300 milliseconds
17. Heat Map Insights
Faces and large images tended to induce fixation more
Celebrity faces present drew longer fixation
○ Even a tiny face of Steve Jobs on Apple’s site
lengthened fixation
Text was only fixated upon if it was SHORT and SIMPLE
21. Conclusion
The presence of distinct characteristics such as a large
image, celebrity face, search box, and little text did indeed
increase the visual appeal of websites with Generation Y users