Semi-automated usability analysis through eye tracking

Usability of software is a crucial aspect of successful applications and could give one application a competitive edge over another. Eye tracking is a popular approach to usability evaluation, but is time consuming and requires expert analysis. This paper proposes a semi-automated process for identifying usability problems in applications with a task-based focus, such as business applications, without the need for expert analysis. The approach is demonstrated on the eye tracking data from a mobile procurement application involving 33 participants. With the recent inclusion of built-in eye tracking hardware in mobile devices, the proposed approach introduces the possibility of conducting remote, large-scale usability studies for improving user experience in mobile applications.