Evaluation of Drug Label Designs Using Eye Tracking

Eye movement measures and conventional performance metrics were used to compare existing drug labels to a new label template that was created based on human factors principles and user research. Twenty pharmacy practitioners were asked to locate a particular drug among others using sets of existing labels and their redesigned counterparts. For most tasks, the new design led to faster responses, either due to a decrease in the number of fixations required to complete a task or a decrease in the mean fixation length. The number and sequence of fixations within a single label and across labels (used as indicators of search efficiency) and fixation duration (used as a measure of information processing efficiency) provided insight into the origins of the noted speed improvements, helping assess which of the multiple design changes introduced in the new template had impact on performance. Application of eye tracking to redesign evaluation is discussed.