Eye Tracking

See What Users Notice Before They Act

Most designs assume users see what matters. Headlines, CTAs, forms, or key details are placed with intention. But users don’t always look where teams expect. A missed element means a missed chance to act.

Eye Tracking cuts through the guesswork. It measures where users look, how long they focus, and in what sequence. It shows what captures attention and what gets skipped, often revealing breakdowns invisible in clicks or scrolls.

Why Teams Miss It

• Relying on click data that ignores pre-click attention

• Assuming visual hierarchy works as designed

• Skipping attention testing until late in the process

Eye Tracking surfaces gaps in focus before they turn into missed conversions or confusion.

Why It Matters

Eye Tracking connects directly to UX metrics in Glare:

• Comprehension: do users notice and process the right content in the right order

• Desirability: which visuals attract interest or get ignored

• Efficiency: how quickly users locate critical information

• Success Rate: whether gaze patterns guide users toward completing tasks

These signals reveal whether your design earns user attention—or loses it.

How It Works

Raw gaze data becomes UX metrics in Glare by mapping attention to outcomes. Fixation tracking highlights Comprehension. Saccade paths and gaze order show Efficiency. Heatmaps reveal Desirability.

AOI (Areas of Interest) completion aligns with Success Rate. With lab setups you get deep fidelity, while webcam tools give faster signals at scale. Initial results can appear within hours, but stable metrics require at least 20–30 participants.

Eye Tracking uses hardware like Tobii or EyeLink, or software like webcam-based tools, to measure gaze. It records where users look, for how long, and in what order.

Steps

1. Define a decision point: choose a flow where attention is critical, such as scanning pricing or comparing products

2. Select setup: use lab hardware for high precision or webcam tools for speed and reach

3. Set AOIs: define key areas such as CTAs, headlines, menus, or form fields

4. Run tasks or exploration: guide users to complete a task or let them browse freely

5. Analyze fixation and flow: review heatmaps and gaze plots for what was seen, skipped, or overly fixated on

6. Translate into changes: adjust hierarchy, spacing, or placement to match natural gaze paths

The signal comes from comparing what you intended users to see with what actually drew their eyes.

Example in Action

A healthcare platform tested a booking flow. Eye Tracking showed users focused on the doctor’s photo and hours but skipped the confirmation button. After moving the CTA into the natural gaze path, completions rose 22 percent.

One signal reshaped the flow.

Best Practices

• Use on high-stakes pages such as pricing, onboarding, or product comparison

• Pair with comprehension or task success data to confirm understanding

• Plan for smaller sample sizes with deeper insight per participant

• Present results visually with heatmaps and gaze paths to align stakeholders fast

When to Use

• Before or after launching high-traffic or high-impact pages

• When click data shows problems but the cause is unclear

• To evaluate clarity and flow of new UI concepts

• Alongside sentiment or comprehension studies for a complete picture

Eye Tracking is one of the few tools that shows what happens before a click.

Brief History

Eye Tracking has been studied since the early 1900s in psychology to understand reading and attention. In the 1990s, infrared camera systems made it commercially viable for digital usability labs. Initially limited to controlled environments, it was expensive and slow.

Advances in the 2000s brought more accessible lab equipment and early software integrations. Today, webcam-based solutions and cloud tools make eye tracking available to broader teams. Now widely used in e-commerce, healthcare, gaming, and advertising, it plays a central role in understanding how users see, process, and act on information.

Run Eye Tracking in 24 Hours

1. Pick one high-stakes flow where attention matters most

2. Define AOIs for critical elements

3. Use a webcam-based tool for fast deployment

4. Test with 20–30 users

5. Review fixation maps and gaze paths

6. Adjust placement or hierarchy and retest

Try It Now

Choose a single page this week. Run a webcam-based eye tracking study. If users fail to notice a key element, you have proof the design is not working, and a signal you can fix immediately.