Towards analyzing eye tracking data for evaluating interactive visualization systems

Abstract

Eye tracking can be a suitable evaluation method for determining which regions and objects of a stimulus a human viewer perceived. Analysts can use eye tracking as a complement to other evaluation methods for a more holistic assessment of novel visualization techniques beyond time and error measures. Up to now, most stimuli in eye tracking are either static stimuli or videos. Since interaction is an integral part of visualization, an evaluation should include interaction. In this paper, we present an extensive literature review on evaluation methods for interactive visualizations. Based on the literature review we propose ideas for analyzing eye movement data from interactive stimuli. This requires looking critically at challenges induced by interactive stimuli. The first step is to collect data using different study methods. In our case, we look at using eye tracking, interaction logs, and thinking-aloud protocols. In addition, this requires a thorough synchronization of the mentioned study methods. To analyze the collected data new analysis techniques have to be developed. We investigate existing approaches and how we can adapt them to new data types as well as sketch ideas how new approaches can look like.