Using Eye Tracking to Study Information Selection and Use in Procedures

Background : Procedures are an important part of instructional materials. To support practitioners in designing effective procedures, research is needed on how users select information from a procedure and put it to use. This study demonstrates how eye tracking can be used to inform such research. Eye tracking is used to study effects of adding pictures to procedures in a software tutorial on how users interact with procedures. Literature review: Existing methods have led to important insights but face limitations. Eye tracking has the potential to overcome some of these limitations. However, research designs are needed that leave it to the user when to read and when to act. Research questions: 1. Does adding pictures to procedures improve user performance and, if so, why? What can we learn from eye tracking about the mechanisms that bring about performance improvements? 2. How do users interact with procedures that they read “to do”? What can we learn from eye tracking about reading strategies that they spontaneously adopt? Methodology: Eye movements were recorded from 42 participants as they worked through one of two versions of a tutorial: with or without pictures. Results: Accuracy on tasks was higher when the procedures included pictures. Including pictures sped up processing the instructions and executing the actions, but did not trigger more attention switches between the procedures and the application that the users worked with. Users spontaneously adopted a strategy of immediate task execution and processed pictures before acting. Conclusions: Pictures facilitate efficient processing of procedures, leaving more resources for task execution. Reading and acting are tightly connected in a complex pattern. Eye tracking will be of value to examine their interplay further and the ways that it can be influenced by design.