Visual behaviour in searching information: A preliminary eye tracking study

Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is a discipline that has progressed to establish a smooth understanding between humans and computers for effective visual searchability, accessibility and usability. With a lot of advances in search engine technology, only a few studies have examined how the results are viewed from the perspective of end users from different regions. The main aim of this research is to investigate and explore whether there are cultural variations in visual search behaviour and eye movements on Search Engine Results Page (SERP) between two different cultures (Arabic and English), using the eye-tracking method in order to provide insights for global implementations of search engines. This research also aims to explore to what extent users with a different language and cultural background differ in their visual search behaviour, performance and satisfaction when they are searching SERP with different layout and tasks. As a preliminary study, a controlled eye-tracking experiment was conducted to explore and evaluate the visual search behaviour of Arabs and English when searching through the Google result Pages. The preliminary results provide new insights into the differences in visual search behaviours and eye movements between participants from the Middle East and the United Kingdom.