Validating the use and role of visual elements of web pages in navigation with an eye-tracking study

This paper presents an eye-tracking study that examines how people use the visual elements of Web pages to complete certain tasks. Whilst these elements are available to play their role in these tasks for sighted users, it is not the case for visually disabled users. This lack of access to some visual elements of a page means that visually disabled users are hindered in accomplishing these tasks. Our previous work has introduced a framework that identifies these elements and then reengineers Web pages such that these elements can play their intended roles in an audio, as well as visual presentation. To further improve our understanding of how these elements are used and to validate our framework, we track the eye movements of sighted users performing a number of different tasks. The resulting gaze data show that there is a strong relationship between the aspects of a page that receive visual attention and the objects identified by our framework. The study also shows some limitations, ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: WWW
• Authors: Yeliz Yesilada, Caroline Jay, Robert Stevens, Simon Harper
• Keywords: Internet Technology, People Allocate Attention, Sighted Users, Visual Elements, WWW 2008