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Extracting business information from graphs: An eye tracking experiment
Abstract
Information graphics are visualizations that convey information about data trends and distributions. Data visualization and the application of graphs is increasingly important in business decision making, for instance, in big data analysis. However, relatively little information exists about how people extract information from graphs and how the framing of the graphic design defines may 'nudge' and bias decision making. As a contribution to fill this gap, this study applies the methodology of experimental economics to the analysis of graph reading and processing to extract underlying information. Specifically, the study presents the results of an experiment whose baseline treatment includes graphical and numerical information. The authors analyze how the information extraction changes in other treatments after removing the numerical information. The experiment applies eye-tracking technology to uncover subtle cognitive processing stages that are otherwise difficult to observe in visualization evaluation studies. The conclusions of the study establish patterns in the process of graph analysis to optimize data visualization for business and policy decision making.
... Furthermore, bar graphs were used in combination with radar graphs [46]. Studies using only bar graphs ranged in topic from economics [47] to data analysis [48]. ...
... Experts spend more time on graph information (such as title and variables) than non-experts [41,46] Experts look at the entire graph [1] Experts spend more time on relevant areas [1,37,47] Fixation count Experts fixate on the axes more often [35] Experts visit graph information (such as title and variables) more often than non-experts [41] Experts fixate more often on task-relevant AOIs [37] Transitions Experts transition more often between conceptually relevant areas [53] Revisits Experts study the axes, axes labels and line segments more often [35] Dwell time ...
... Experts look longer at conceptually relevant areas [52,53,56] Experts spend less time on areas that can be used to calculate the solution [53] Experts spend less time on areas found relevant for non-experts [56] Saccades Experts look along the graph slope [1] Similarly, to meso-and macro-level AOIs, regarding static eye-tracking metrics, experiments analyzing micro-level AOIs also found that experts paid more attention to relevant AOIs [1,37,47,52,53,56], including graph information [35,41,46]. Furthermore, experts looked at the entire graph [1]. ...
The interpretation of graphs plays a pivotal role in education because it is relevant for understanding and representing data and comprehending concepts in various domains. Accordingly, many studies examine students’ gaze behavior by comparing different levels of expertise when interpreting graphs. This literature review presents an overview of 32 articles comparing the gaze behavior of experts and non-experts during problem-solving and learning with graphs up to January 2022. Most studies analyzed students’ dwell time, fixation duration, and fixation count on macro- and meso-, as well as on micro-level areas of interest. Experts seemed to pay more attention to relevant parts of the graph and less to irrelevant parts of a graph, in line with the information-reduction hypothesis. Experts also made more integrative eye movements within a graph in terms of dynamic metrics. However, the determination of expertise is inconsistent. Therefore, we recommend four factors that will help to better determine expertise. This review gives an overview of evaluation strategies for different types of graphs and across various domains, which could facilitate instructing students in evaluating graphs.
... Thereby, visual input is inherently richer than verbal and symbolic information, which is automatically reductionistic (Meyer 1991), but more suited for discrete information retrieval due to its simplicity (Vessey and Galletta 1991). However, the processes behind visual cognition remain largely unclear (Vila and Gomez 2016). ...
... Similarly, Lohse (1997) finds that in the more complex decision environment of a budget allocation simulation, decision accuracy is related to efficient gazing behavior and can be improved through the use of colors to reduce the time subjects spend looking at the chart legend. Psychology experiments validate that well-designed graphs enable subjects to focus their attention on relevant information and subsequently improve decision accuracy (Huestegge and Pötzsch 2018) and response time (Vila and Gomez 2016) (Table 15). ...
... Utilizing eye-tracking technology, Reani et al. (2019) point out that different types of graphs result in varying gazing patterns in users and hypothesize a link to the reasoning processes. Based on the principle of saliency, multiple studies show that graphs optimally designed to focus attention on the most relevant information lead to more efficient and thereby faster gazing (Falschlunger et al. 2014(Falschlunger et al. , 2015a, since more time can be spent focusing on highly relevant information (Vila and Gomez 2016). Much of this existing work stems from the area of management reporting, investigating quantitative financial data. ...
The visualization of information is a widely used tool to improve comprehension and, ultimately, decision-making in strategic management decisions as well as in a diverse array of other domains. Across social science research, many findings have supported this rationale. However, empirical results vary significantly in terms of the variables and mechanisms studied as well as their resulting conclusion. Despite the ubiquity of information visualization with modern software, there is little effort to create a comprehensive understanding of the powers and limitations of its use. The purpose of this article is therefore to review, systematize, and integrate extant research on the effects of information visualization on decision-making and to provide a future research agenda with a particular focus on the context of strategic management decisions. The study shows that information visualization can improve decision quality as well as speed, with more mixed effects on other variables, for instance, decision confidence. Several moderators such as user and task characteristics have been investigated as part of this interaction, along with cognitive aspects as mediating processes. The article presents integrative insights based on research spanning multiple domains across the social and information sciences and provides impulses for prospective applications in the realm of managerial decision-making.
... The results of the eye movement analysis, gained based on the user's interaction with a computer, can help to understand the respondent's cognitive processeswhat stimuli captured the user's attention, in what order, how much time was devoted to them and whether or not the user returned to them (Nisiforou & Laghos, 2013;Vel asquez, 2013). Using an eye-tracking device can reveal even the subtle phases of the cognitive process, which are difficult to track in other types of research studies (Vila & Gomez, 2016). ...
... The disadvantage of gaining information using this unobtrusive and sophisticated method is the inability to conduct research with a large number of respondents. This phenomenon concerns not only eye-tracking, but all neuroscience experiments, which are characterised by their complexity and time-consuming data collection (Goldberg & Helfman, 2011;Vila & Gomez, 2016). ...
... The testing was carried out using the VT 3 mini Eye Tracker manufactured by Mangold International (Arnstorf, Germany). This device belongs to unobtrusive research tools (Djamasbi et al., 2010;Schiessl et al., 2010;Vila & Gomez, 2016) that do not distract the respondent or cause them discomfort, and thus do not negatively affect the testing procedure. ...
This paper presents a research study detailing the procedure and results of experimental eye-tracking research to evaluate employers’ career websites. The objective of this research was to gain an insight into Generation Y’s perspective on the career websites of prospective employers. The objective was developed into several research questions and hypotheses. The eye-tracking research method was used to test the websites. The eye-tracking tests were supplemented by an in-depth interview and a standardised questionnaire with the aim of acquiring the respondents’ subjective views and preferences. The research study contributes to an understanding of how prospective employees from Generation Y view the career websites of employers and the importance of the elements presented on them; it allowed factors that affect the perceived attractiveness of career websites to be identified and provided information as to what Millennials liked the most/least about the organisations’ career websites and what would be advisable to change in order for the career websites to better serve their purpose. Based on the research findings, recommendations were made for creating attractive career websites for job seekers from Generation Y.
... Graph literacy, i.e. the ability to understand graphically presented information, may be measured, for example, in the scale developed by Galesic and Garcia-Retamero (2011). However, relatively little information exists about how people extract information from graphs and how graphical design defines or 'nudges' and biases decision making (Vila & Gomez, 2016 ISSN 1648-3898 /Print/ ISSN 2538-7138 /Online/ Previous decades saw the development of many taxonomies comprising highly similar concepts (for example, Bertin (1983); Curcio (1987); Tan and Benbasat (1990) or Wainer (1992)). ...
... Extracting business information from graphs was examined in a study by Vila and Gomez (2016), who applied the methodology of experimental economics. The authors compared graphs which had numerical information to graphs which had none. ...
... Wainer (1992) studied the comprehension of graphs and tables in the field of geography. Vila and Gomez (2016) extracted business information from graphs, etc. However, to the best of our knowledge, no previous eye-tracking research has been conducted with participants allocated to groups according to their abilities. ...
Graphs are often used to represent mathematical functions, to illustrate data from social and natural sciences, or to specify scientific theories. With increasing emphasis on the development of scientific research skills, the work with graphs and data interpretation are gaining in importance. The research involved an eye-tracking experiment conducted to evaluate student work with graphs in physics. Eye-movement data were recorded using the GazePoint eye-tracker. A total of 40 third-year grammar school students participated in the research. These students were allocated into three groups by a physics teacher. These groups were called PLUS, AVERAGE and MINUS. The PLUS group showed excellent results in education and included gifted physics students. The MINUS group was composed of the opposite end of this cognitive spectrum, whose members made the most mistakes in graph reading. The aim of the experiment was to find the differences between students allocated to these three groups and to evaluate whether the allocation based on the teacher’s experience, long-term observations and the students’ previous achievements was sufficient. The results showed that students from all three groups had problems with reading graphs in physics. According to the eye-movement data, several students who had been incorrectly assigned to groups were identified.
... Eye-tracking technology was found to be a particularly useful tool for understanding visual perception and information processing in response to information visualization. Using this type of technology, researchers can capture subtle cognitive processing phases that may be difficult to detect in standard visualization evaluation studies [30]. With the technology being employed on a larger scale, there is a growing body of research on the efficacy of eye-tracking data in understanding the processes underlying people's interpretation of different kinds of graphical visualizations [31]. ...
... However, a lack of interest may not necessarily be the cause of such errors, as suggested by previous research. For example, a study by Vila and Gomez [30] on extracting business information from graphs found that people providing wrong answers spend more time in graph scanning compared with those who answer the question properly. Furthermore, our results showed no difference in information processing between 2D and 3D bar charts that affects the perception of the size relationships shown in information visualization. ...
Three-dimensional information visualizations are widely used in various fields for their aesthetic appeal. However, using them can sometimes lead to occlusion and distortion, which raises questions about when and why to use them. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of three-dimensional visualizations on human gaze and user understanding and analyze the perception process in detail. Our empirical research consisted of a two-part experimental study that involved both subjective and objective evaluation. We specifically focused on bar charts as they are among the most frequently used types of information visualizations. The results suggest that, for bar chart visualizations with varying gap dimensions, there is no statistically significant difference in user understanding between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional versions. Our findings indicate that, in general, three-dimensional bar chart visualizations are as comprehensible as their two-dimensional counterparts for the gap dimensions examined in this research. This study provides empirical insights demonstrating that both 3D and 2D bar charts are equally understandable, particularly when a specific gap depth is used in 3D visualizations. These findings contribute to the ongoing discussion about the effective use of three-dimensional visualizations and highlight areas for further research.
... However, data also suggests that this information is elaborated with relative ease, indicating graphs as a preferred way of presenting risk-related information. Nonetheless, in the Vila and Gomez (2016), authors found evidence suggesting that even relatively simple graphs can potentially elicit ineffective information extraction and suboptimal decisions. Woller-Carter et al. ...
... Hüsser and Wirth (2014) Could different graph representations of financial information and risk elicit different patterns of information processing and decision making behaviors? Smerecnik et al. (2010), Vila and Gomez (2016) What are the effects of financial education on the individual search and decision-making? Król and Król (2019a), Woller-Carter et al. (2012), Brückner et al. (2020) Is it possible to develop a financial skill-evaluation protocol based on the use of ET methodology? ...
Eye-tracking is a technology that gives researchers an unprecedented level of access to the individual visual attention and the possibility of tracing different emotional and cognitive processes underlying one’s interaction with the environment. In recent years, increased availability of eye-tracking devices and the easier experimental tractability of data have made this technology ever-more appealing for behavioral and experimental researchers from various disciplines, finance included. With this paper, we aim to fulfill an identified need to organize and evaluate the available knowledge on the use of eye- tracking in the experimental research on financial decision-making. We perform a systematic review of the literature in these domains and analyze its structure and development using a bibliometrics approach. We explore studies in proximal research fields which used eye-tracking methodology on aspects that resonate with processing of financial information, such as comprehension of graphs, effects of different data visualizations and so on. Afterwards, we organize and critically examine all contributions and chart a detailed knowledge map. Our results confirm growing interest in eye-tracking studies as well as the methodology’ potential as a tool for the understanding of different processes and aspects of individuals’ interaction with financial documents. We highlight the yet unexplored promise of the eye-tracking technology for both skill-evaluation and learning studies. Finally, we identify some of the knowledge gaps and present ideas for potential future research paths.
... So, the aim of this work is to understand whether we can predict the 23 decision of a policymaking task, using the reading patterns captured by an eye tracker. 24 In this study, we collected eye tracker data of the reading of the individual before 25 making decision on the policies. Then we acquired the heatmap images from the eye 26 tracker data. ...
... 109 Besides, there are studies that use visualization of the fixation or eye gaze to study the 110 parafoveal data which is not reflected through numeric values of fixation and saccade 111 [26]. Visualization data also allows qualitative analysis [24]. Finally, the cognitive load 112 feature is useful to understand the level of difficulty of the decision-making task [27]. ...
... Výsledky analýzy pohybu očí, získaných na základě interakce člověka s počítačem, mohou pomoci v pochopení kognitivních procesů respondenta -jaké podněty respondent vyhledával, v jakém pořadí, kolik času jim věnoval a zda se k nim vracel (Velásquez, 2013;Nisiforou & Laghos, 2013). Díky oční kameře může výzkumník odhalit stěží patrné fáze poznávacího procesu, které jsou při jiných studiích jen těžko pozorovatelné (Vila & Gomez, 2016). ...
... Cenou za získávání informací touto nerušivou a sofistikovanou metodou je nemožnost provádění výzkumu s větším množstvím respondentů. Tento jev není záležitostí pouze eyetrackingu, ale všech neuro-experimentů, které jsou charakteristické složitostí a časovou náročností sběru dat (Lapa, 2007;Burch et al., 2011;Goldberg & Helfman, 2011;Vila & Gomez, 2016). ...
... The sampling rate of the eye tracker was 120 HZ, and the accuracy of the eye-tracking data depended on the stimulus points (1280 × 1024 pixels) on the TFT screen. We analyzed and processed the eye-tracking data using Tobii Studio version 3.2.1 [103]. ...
Many platforms and sellers have adopted e-commerce live streaming to attract consumers. However, little research has been done to understand the effects of attractiveness in e-commerce live streaming. Drawing on interpersonal attraction theory, selective attention theory, and self-image congruence theories, we focus on the two most important factors in e-commerce live streaming (anchors and products) and investigate the effects of anchors’ attractiveness and products’ attractiveness on visual attention allocation and subsequent consumers’ purchase intentions. Furthermore, we identify two key moderators that affect the relationship between attractiveness (i.e., anchor attractiveness and product attractiveness) and visual attention: anchor-self fit (ASF) and product-self fit (PSF). Using a combination of eye-tracking experiment and self-reported questionnaire methods, we find that highly attractive anchors and products induce longer fixation duration and greater fixation count. In terms of moderating effects, ASF positively moderates the effect of anchor attractiveness on fixation count on appearance area of interest (AOI), while PSF positively moderates the effect of product attractiveness on fixation duration on product AOI. Moreover, attention to the product AOI is positively related to purchase intention, whereas the fixation duration and fixation count of attention to the appearance AOI exert different effects on purchase intention.
... Researchers have proposed that the ability to pay attention to teachers' instruction is a prerequisite to learning (Campbell, 2014). Within the domain of classroom engagement, selective eye contact -defined as the capacity to allocate mental resources to important information -has been recognized as an important classroom indicator that enables learners to direct their attention to important concepts (Poole & Ball, 2006), while simultaneously suppressing visual and auditory distractions (Vila & Gomez, 2016;Stevens & Bavelier, 2012). Studies have shown the effect of Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. ...
Studies examining students’ learning behavior predominantly employed rich video data as their main source of information due to the limited knowledge of computer vision and deep learning algorithms. However, one of the challenges faced during such observation is the strenuous task of coding large amounts of video data through repeated viewings. In this research, we confirm the possibilities of classifying students’ learning behavior using data obtained from multimodal distribution. We employed computer algorithms to classify students’ learning behavior in animated programming classrooms and used information from this classification to predict learning outcomes. Specifically, our study indicates the presence of three clusters of students in the domain of “stay active”, “stay passive”, and “to-passive”. We also found a relationship between these profiles and learning outcomes. We discussed our findings in accordance with the engagement and instructional quality models and believed that our statistical approach will support the ongoing refinement of the models in the context of behavioral profiling and classroom interaction. We recommend that further studies should identify different epistemological frames in diverse classroom settings to provide sufficient explanations of students’ learning processes.
... Eye-tracking technology has been applied in different consumer-related fields, and more specifically, in the online research, in advertising effectiveness. More exactly, in Healthcare Marketing, this technique provides accurate information on consumers' visual attention as gaze fixations and visualization patterns used in advertising [18]. ...
The aim of this review is to highlight the importance and benefits of eye tracking in Neuromarketing, by analyzing research papers and articles from international databases such as Scopus, PubMed, Elsevier, Springer and Science Direct. After analyzing some of the most representative publications related to eye tracking in Neuromarketing, we have concluded that it can be considered one of the most important tools in determining the consumers’ intent to buy medical products and services.
In addition, with a mixture between standard Marketing Research methods and the eye-tracking technology, the researchers can get insight into unconscious factors that influence the consumers’ choices and preferences.
In conclusion, neuromarketing can prevent the waste of money spent on ineffective marketing campaigns.
... Sofern dies der Fall ist und berichtet wurde, wird an entsprechender Stelle im Text darauf hingewiesen. Neben dem rein mathematischen Kontext (Andrá et al., 2015) wurde das Blickverhalten bei Graphen bislang im Bereich von Klimadaten (Atkins und McNeal, 2018;Harsch et al., 2019), der Kinematik (Kekule, 2014;Madsen et al., 2012;Madsen et al., 2013;Rouinfar et al., 2014;Klein et al., 2020;Küchemann et al., 2020a), Gesundheitsdaten (Okan et al., 2016) und Wirtschaftswissenschaften (Vila & Gomez, 2016) untersucht. Zusätzlich vergleichen einige Studien den Kontext (Susac et al., 2018;Klein et al., 2019;Brückner et al., 2020) und andere Studien beschränken sich auf keinen spezifischen Kontexts (Matzen et al., 2017;Polatsek et al., 2018;Strobel et al., 2016;Strobel, 2018;Strobel et al., 2018;Strobel et al., 2019). ...
Graphen nehmen eine interdisziplinär zentrale Rolle bei der Darstellung von Messwerten und der Visualisierung mathematischer Funktionen ein. Durch ihre vielseitigen Einsatzmöglichkeiten und unterschiedlichen Komplexitätsgrade werden sie sowohl in den Sekundarstufen und der universitären Lehre als auch in wissenschaftlichen Publikationen und im öffentlichen Leben intensiv genutzt. Daher ist ein Verständnis dieser Repräsentationsform von zentraler Bedeutung. Als bewährte Methode zur Erfassung der kognitiven Informationsextraktion und -verarbeitung hat sich in den letzten 20 Jahren zunehmend die Verfolgung von Blickbewegungen, das Eye-Tracking, in der Lehr-/Lernforschung etabliert. Im Rahmen der Literaturrecherche wurden 27 Artikel in nationalen und internationalen Zeitschriften identifiziert, die das Blickverhalten beim Lernen und Problemlösen mit Graphen thematisieren. Diese Artikel wurden hinsichtlich dreier Schwerpunkte ausgewertet: 1) das Blickverhalten bei Graphen in Kombination mit anderen Repräsentationen, 2) den Einfluss des Darstellungstyps und des Kontexts und 3) die Einflüsse weiterer Charakteristika beim Lernen und Problemlösen mit Graphen. Im Vergleich zu früheren Überblicksartikeln stellt dieses Kapitel erstmalig einen Überblick zu Artikeln, welche das Blickverhalten bei Graphen untersucht haben, dar.
... Eye-tracking technology has gained application in different consumer-related disciplines. In particular, this technique provides accurate information on consumers' visual attention as fixations and visualisation patterns (Vila and Gomez, 2016). Eye-trackers record the exact point and gaze duration through high-speed and high-resolution cameras, (Duchowski, 2007) and provide the most detailed information about consumer visual attention (Graham et al., 2012). ...
... This study revealed that 25% of ads are seen on mobile screens vs. the 5% on desktops, that the advertisement starts to generate emotional and cognitive responses only after 700 ms, and that 50% of the ads produce an emotional response if the ad is seen for at least 1,000 ms, leading to the definition of the "1-s ad strategy." The integration of techniques such as the eye tracking and the EEG can provide real-time information to detect where a person is looking at (Vila and Gomez, 2016), which sequential strategies are being used (Goldberg and Helfman, 2011) and to identify approaching vs. avoiding behaviors toward a stimulus of interest such as a digital ad (Davidson, 1995;Davidson and Hugdahl, 1996;Di Flumeri et al., 2018;Modica et al., 2018). ...
Display and native ads represent two of the most widely used digital advertising formats employed by advertisers that aim to grab the attention of online users. In recent years, the native format has become very popular because it relies on deceptive features that make harder the recognition of its advertising nature, reducing avoiding behaviors such as the banner blindness phenomena, traditionally associated to display advertising, and so increasing its advertising effectiveness. The present study, based on a forefront research protocol specifically designed for the advertising research on smartphone devices, aims to investigate through neurophysiological and self-reported measures, the perception of display and native ads placed within article webpages, and to assess the efficacy of an integrated approach. Eye-tracking results showed higher visual attention and longer viewing time associated with native advertisements in comparison to traditional display advertisements, confirming and extending evidence provided by previous research. Despite a significantly higher rate of self-reported advertising intent was detected for articles containing display ads when compared to articles containing native ads, no differences have been found while performing the same comparison for the neurophysiological measures of emotional involvement and approaching motivation of for the self-reported measures of pleasantness and annoyance. Such findings along with the employment of an innovative research protocol, contribute to providing further cues to the current debate related to the effectiveness of two of the most widely used digital advertising formats.
... Eye-tracking technology has gained application in different consumer-related disciplines. In particular, this technique provides accurate information on consumers' visual attention as fixations and visualisation patterns (Vila and Gomez, 2016). Eye-trackers record the exact point and gaze duration through high-speed and high-resolution cameras, (Duchowski, 2007) and provide the most detailed information about consumer visual attention (Graham et al., 2012). ...
... That is, these maps illustrate the total time that participants fixed their eyes in each image's element. The heat scale means that the darker colors represent a larger time spent looking at the image area, that is, when the color is red the attention is higher (Vila & Gomez, 2016). When exposed to the imperfect (vs. ...
Consumers use aesthetics bias to judge the risk of their food intake, having an important impact on food waste of less appealing food (i.e., aesthetically imperfect foods). In six studies, this research adds to past work by revealing that when the aesthetics bias is applied to food targets, consumers make risk inferences for imperfect (vs. perfect) food products, thus reducing their purchase intention. In addition, the findings suggest that con-strual level moderates food aesthetics bias, reducing perceived risk and increasing purchase intention of aesthetically imperfect foods in abstract (vs. concrete) construal. This research uncovers the importance of abstract thinking in order to revoke the food aesthetics bias. The findings have critical implications for researchers, managers, and public policy makers on how to mitigate food aesthetics biases, which can contribute to reducing food waste.
... Existing dashboard studies utilized eye trackers to evaluate certain design features (e.g., presentation formats, colors, size, etc.) by analyzing offline records of eye movement data (Bera, 2014(Bera, , 2016Burch et al., 2011;Nadj et al., 2020). Other studies investigated decision-makers' visual analytics strategies to find the relationship between accuracy, speed, and consistency of decisions (Cöltekin et al., 2010;Vila & Gomez, 2016) as well as users' cognitive effort while working with visualized information (Fehrenbacher & Djamasbi, 2017;Smerecnik et al., 2010). Further, researchers used eye movement data to examine the relationship between user characteristics and visualized information such as perceptual speed, as well as visual and verbal working memory (Okan et al., 2016;Toker et al., 2013). ...
Information dashboards are a critical capability in contemporary business intelligence & analytics systems. Despite coming with strong potential to support better decision making, the huge amount of information provided challenges their users when they perform data exploration tasks. Accordingly, dashboard users face difficulties in managing their limited attentional resources when processing the presented information on dashboards. Also, recent studies show that the amount of concentrated time humans can spend on a task is reduced massively and there is a need for designing user interfaces that support their users' attention management. Therefore, in this design science research project, we propose attentive information dashboards that provide individualized visual attention feedback (VAF) as an innovative artifact to solve this problem. We articulate theoretically grounded design principles and instantiate a software artifact leveraging users' eye movement gaze data in real-time to provide individualized VAF. The instantiated artifact was evaluated in a controlled lab experiment with 92 participants. The results from analyzing users' eye movement after receiving individualized VAF reveal that our proposed design has a positive effect on users' attentional resource allocation, attention shift rate, and attentional resource management. We contribute a system architecture for attentive information dashboards that support data exploration and two theoretically grounded design principles that provide prescriptive knowledge on how to provide individualized VAF. Further, practitioners can leverage the prescriptive knowledge derived from our research and design innovative systems that support users' information processing by managing their limited attentional resources.
... Logically, users' attention to search engine results pages (SERPs) is strongly influenced by the position, visibility and design of the search results' ads. Thus, users prefer the first pages displayed [41] in the so-called "visible area" of the SERP, i.e., results visible without scrolling [42,43]. Further, the displayed results encourage consumers to click, due to the size, the graphic design [44] or the elements that compose the advertisements [5]. ...
The nature of e-commerce prevents the perception of the intrinsic and sensory attributes of wine. In the virtual environment, visual cues allow consumers to perceive the product, determine their attitude and form a preference. Users will choose one product or another based on the visual appeal of the advertisements they have seen. Wine marketers must consider the importance of the advertisement elements and attract the consumer’s attention. Optimizing the elements included in these messages can help capture consumers’ attention and achieve a higher click-through rate on the ads. The main objective of this work is to analyse the awareness that different advertisements achieve. Specifically, we use a 2 × 2 × 2 experimental design where we manipulate the packaging format (single bottle vs. pack), labelling (bottle without label vs. labelled bottle) for wine ads (white and red). To analyse attention, we used an eye-tracking methodology. The main results suggest that attention is captured more quickly with an individual bottle without a label than with a particular bottle with a label in Google ads. However, ads showing packs of bottles with labels get more attention than ads using packs of bottles without labels.
... At this point, we can see price influence over the purchase decision overlapping the previous sensorial selection. These results are aligned with Stefani, Romano, and Cavicchi (2006)'s previous research [59]. Furthermore, this result showed that participants, although preferred S3, are not willing to pay for it. ...
Price is considered one of the most important attributes in consumer’s choice. On the other hand, consumer’s knowledge about price tends to be imprecise. This study aims at providing new insights analyzing consumers’ perception of retail store brand (focused on Skin Care Products) comparing with two other skin care products, a premium, and a popular national brand. Second, to analyze the association price versus quality variables in the purchasing decision process. Third, to demonstrate the influence of both, unconscious and cognitive process during the purchase choice intention. Through Neuromarketing tools and protocols (quantitative and qualitative), the study exposes participants to a blind test of the three products and asks participants to talk about their sensory impressions like scent, feelings, and products texture. Using facial electromyography (EMG) and eye-tracker devices we measured consumers’ responses when we introduced price and brand name variables, by this way comparing unconscious and cognitive responses. The findings showed that an unconscious decision could be change when new variables were revealed. The study showed how conscious price variable was the major influence in their purchase intention.
... That is, these maps illustrate the total time that participants fixed their eyes in each image's element. The heat scale means that the darker colors represent a larger time spent looking at the image area, that is, when the color is red the attention is higher (Vila & Gomez, 2016). When exposed to the imperfect (vs. ...
Concerning food products that have a direct relationship with health, the instinct to search for the perfect appearance is dominant. Consumers use food aesthetics bias to judge the risk of their food intake, having an important impact on food waste of less appealing food. In six studies, we explore consumers’ food waste decisions by analyzing and reverting two types of food aesthetics biases, namely: beauty-is-good and the ugly-is-risky. This research adds to past work by revealing that construal level moderates food aesthetics bias, reducing perceived risk and increasing purchase intentions in abstract (vs. concrete) construal.
... That is, these maps illustrate the total time that participants fixed their eyes in each image's element. The heat scale means that the darker colors represent a larger time spent looking at the image area, that is, when the color is red the attention is bigger (Vila & Gomez, 2016). With an exposition to a lower aesthetic food product, participants had the highest number of eye fixations, when compared with the high aesthetics condition. ...
... Eye movements are considered as a reliable indicator of attention (Poole and Ball 2006). It helps uncover subtle cognitive processing stages that are difficult to observe in visualisation evaluation studies (Vila and Gomez 2016). In human vision, eye movements are essential to cognitive processes as they carry visual attention to the specific parts of stimuli that are processed by the brain (Sharafi, Soh, and Guéhéneuc 2015). ...
The increasing growth in the use of mobile news apps has raised questions on how their interface design features affect users’ gaze behaviours and behavioural performance. To tackle these issues, two experiments (visual browse and search tasks) were designed to investigate the impact of interface design features (colour and layout) on users’ gaze behaviours (fixation count, fixation time ratio and first fixation duration) and behavioural performance (task completion time and search accuracy) with a portable eye tracker. Twenty-four participants were recruited to browse and search for news in different mobile news interfaces with Chinese language. The results showed that mobile news apps with white interfaces attracted more attention and participants needed more time to comprehend the information of white interfaces in the visual browse task. Furthermore, participants achieved higher search efficiency in the visual search task by using interfaces with red keyword and LT-RP (Left Text-Right Picture). In addition, it is noticeable that participants paid more attention to the text than the pictures of mobile news interfaces, and most participants first looked at text and later observed pictures. The findings provide valuable and interesting insights for better understanding users’ gaze behaviours and behavioural performance of mobile news apps.
... The primary assumption held by researchers is that it is possible to identify the products of cognitive processes via eye tracking, a method that can capture a reader's visual behavior (Giuliani & Schenk, 2015;Lai et al., 2013;Nitzan-Tamar, Kramarski, & Vakil, 2016;Rayner, 1998;Vila & Gomez, 2016). The findings of a study conducted by Rayner, Chace, Slattery, and Ashby (2006) among native English-speaking students indicated that patterns of eye movements reflect the text's difficulty for the reader, that is, the higher the level of the text, the greater the number of fixations. ...
The inclusion of technology in schools, coupled with the importance of promoting reading for students with difficulties in particular, has increased the need for investigating processes that support reading and reading comprehension. The present study therefore focuses on the characteristics of reading from an educational digital book containing an expository text and illustrations, conducted by means of an eye tracking methodology enabling online reflection of the reading process. The effect on reading a highlighted text with illustrations was compared to that of reading a static text with illustrations. Participants included 30 poor readers and 31 typical readers aged 8–10.9, randomly assigned to two groups according to reading mode: An experimental group that read a highlighted text with an illustration and a control group that read a static text with an illustration. The findings indicate that among poor readers, the highlighted text in the digital book evoked greater visual focusing on the text and more transitions between the text and the illustration. The findings of the study contribute to our knowledge on multimedia learning and the process of reading among poor and typical readers while reading highlighted text with illustrations.
... Video-oculographic studies currently find practical application in a wide range of marketing, market and utility studies [7][8][9]. Concerning the fact that vision and the cognitive processes associated with it occur almost always and everywhere, eye-tracking studies have increasingly become a part of studies of many areas of life. They are recommended for use in areas like category height and depth. ...
This article discusses the visual perception of selected buildings located in the historic centre of Cologne, Germany, that have been designed by outstanding architects. It presents eye-tracking research, both from a theoretical perspective and that of its application potential in, among other fields, psychology, management, architecture and urban planning. It also presents an experiment which was performed to evaluate the suitability of eye tracking in the assessment of the visual perception of architecture and its surroundings, utilising the case study method and members of Generation Z as the subject population. Analysis of the experiment’s results enabled the authors to formulate commentary on findings concerning typically observed attractors and distractors in the perception of architecture and its surroundings depending on context-specific conditions. The study provided evidence of the suitability of eye tracking in the assessment of the visual perception of works of architecture and indicated the possibility of continuing research concerning the assessment and shaping of the state of awareness and knowledge of architecture and urban planning, which can significantly affect public participation in urban governance.
... The cost of acquiring data using this unobtrusive and sophisticated method is the inability to conduct research on a larger number of respondents. This phenomenon concerns not just eye-tracking, but all neuro-experiments, which are characterized by great complexity and time-consuming data collection (Lapa, 2007;Burch et al., 2011;Goldberg and Helfman, 2011;Vila and Gomez, 2016). In terms of methodology, eye-tracking can be used for both the qualitative as well as quantitative type of research (Nielsen and Pernice, 2009). ...
Advertisers mostly use one of three popular appeals in their advertisements-fear, humour and sex. The erotic appeal is one of the most controversial emotional appeals. The use of sex appeal in advertising is influenced by several factors that need to be taken into consideration. Sex sells and perhaps that is why marketers consider it to be one of the most potent tools in advertising. One of the characteristics that sets Generation Y apart from earlier generations, and which is relevant for this research, is that they have reported greater liking of advertisements compared to previous generations and are less often offended, insulted and misled by advertising. The objective of this study is to verify whether sex sells. In selected advertising campaigns with an erotic undertone, it was tested whether the use of sex appeal in combination with a suitable product can increase the demand for such a product rather than in areas where there is no association of the product with sex appeal. The study also investigates whether men pay more attention to sex in advertising than women.
... Eye-tracking technology has gained application in different consumer-related disciplines and more specifically in studies related to the online world, for example to quantify ad banner effectiveness. In particular, this technique provides accurate information on consumers' visual attention as fixations and visualization patterns [15]. In particular, the present study adopts the approach of inductive reasoning in which researchers create and analyze large datasets from eye-tracking data so as to identify visualization patterns without designing an explicit model. ...
The advent of Web 2.0 is changing tourists' behaviors, prompting them to take on a more active role in preparing their travel plans. It is also leading tourism companies to have to adapt their marketing strategies to different online social media. The present study analyzes advertising effectiveness in social media in terms of customers' visual attention and self-reported memory (recall). Data were collected through a within-subjects and between-groups design based on eye-tracking technology, followed by a self-administered questionnaire. Participants were instructed to visit three Travel 2.0 websites (T2W), including a hotel's blog, social network profile (Facebook), and virtual community profile (Tripadvisor). Overall, the results revealed greater advertising effectiveness in the case of the hotel social network; and visual attention measures based on eye-tracking data differed from measures of self-reported recall. Visual attention to the ad banner was paid at a low level of awareness, which explains why the associations with the ad did not activate its subsequent recall. The paper offers a pioneering attempt in the application of eye-tracking technology, and examines the possible impact of visual marketing stimuli on user T2W-related behavior. The practical implications identified in this research, along with its limitations and future research opportunities, are of interest both for further theoretical development and practical application.
... This study aims to fill this gap with the use of eyetracking technology to test participants' perceptions of foreground and background. This technology allows researchers and practitioners to collect real-time information acquired from consumers' fixations and visualizations (Vila and Gomez 2016). ...
Previous studies indicate that Westerners and non-Westerners vary in terms of culture and in the degree of focus on objects and the background of advertisings. In this study, the divergences in the perceptions of advertisements for luxury cars are tested by using eye-tracking technology. Going beyond previous studies that considered the time spent on the observations, we use a mixed-methods approach to complement experimental results with survey data. As expected, Europeans pay more attention to the object (i.e., luxury product) in the advertising compared to Asians. In contrast, Asians focus more on the background of the stimuli. Seizing these results, practitioners will be able to design better-targeted advertising for luxury brands based on whether the audience is Asian or Western. The study also shows how an advertiser distracts the attention of the target group from the object (product) by adding focal objects on the sides.
... Eye tracking methodology allows researchers to study the behavioral-environmental processes behind a purchase more effectively. Furthermore, this methodology provides real-time information on consumers' fixations and visualization patterns (Vila & Gomez, 2015). The present study adopts the approach of inductive reasoning in which researchers create and analyze large datasets from eye tracking data to identify patterns and then build a model to develop hypotheses in future studies. ...
Although the literature establishes the importance of pricing in relation to traditional retailers and e-commerce, few studies consider its importance in social commerce. This study uses eye tracking to examine observational behavior as fixation time on price and the total fixation time on a Facebook page that displays clothing products. This study employs interventions both directly related (via different prices of clothes and price visibility) and indirectly related (via human models vs. mannequins) to the price label. Results show a U-shape function for fixations on price and total fixations on a page with respect to price for females who buy for themselves and males who buy for their partners. This finding points not only to the utilitarian position of price, but also to its informational role. This study introduces a conceptual framework for further research, focused on the mechanisms through which social commerce can lead to increased sales and profits.
Purpose
Graphs are widely used in the banking and finance domain to support consumers’ decision-making process, but subjects differ in their ability to understand them. This study aims to detect the determinants of the ability to read and process financial information conveyed in the graphical format, i.e. financial graph literacy (FGL) and the relationship between FGL and subjects’ actual financial behavior (FB).
Design/methodology/approach
Data are collected by administering a structured questionnaire to the Italian adult population ( n = 502). The survey includes different sections aimed at collecting information about sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables, financial literacy and FB. The econometric analyses are developed using OLS and Poisson regressions.
Findings
The results show that gender, geographical area, education, marital status and income are crucial determinants of FGL. Moreover, the analysis reveals that an increase in the FGL indicator is associated with a higher propensity for individuals to purchase banking or financial products or actively manage financial resources; results are robust, even controlling for financial knowledge.
Originality/value
Although previous research investigates the impact of graphs in financial decision-making, no studies measure the ability of consumers to read and interpret financial information conveyed in the graphical format. This study is the first to investigate the determinants of FGL and link it to actual FB. Implications for policymakers, regulatory and supervisory authorities and financial intermediaries are discussed.
While there are many studies conducted to examine the effectiveness of athletes as endorsers, there are few studies examining the effectiveness of para-athletes as endorsers. The aim of this study is to compare whether para-athletes can be as effective as able-bodied athletes as endorsers. The study recruited 44 participants who were randomly split into two groups and exposed to an advertisement featuring either an able-bodied athlete or a para-athlete. The findings show that there was no significant difference in both groups in terms of visual attention, perceptions of the advertised brand and purchase intention. This suggests that para-athletes are as effective as able-bodied athletes in endorsements. Interestingly, the results also show that participants in the para-athlete group were visually attracted to the impairment of the para-athlete, and evaluated the para-athlete higher in terms of attractiveness and credibility.
Purpose
This study sought to understand which food allergen labeling systems (non-directive, semi-directive, and directive) were attended to and preferred by 34 participants with food hypersensitivity and their perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) and behavioral intention towards a restaurant that identifies food allergens on menus.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used an online survey with open-ended and ranking questions, combined with eye-tracking technology, to explore participants' visual attention and design preferences regarding four menus. This study utilized one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) and heat maps to analyze participants' menu-reading behaviors. A content analysis of survey responses and a ranking analysis of menus were conducted to understand the reasons behind consumers' preferred menu designs.
Findings
The advisory statement was not much attended to. Participants identified food allergen information significantly quicker with the directive labeling system (icons) than the other two systems, implying they were eye-catching. Semi-directive labeling system (red text) has lower visit count and was more preferred than two other systems; each labeling system has its strengths and limitations. Participants viewed restaurants that disclosed food allergen information on menus as socially responsible, and they would revisit those restaurants in the future.
Originality/value
This study was one of the first to explore, through use of eye-tracking technology, which food allergen labeling systems were attended to by consumers with food hypersensitivity. The use of triangulation methods strengthened the credibility of the results. The study provided empirical data to restauranteurs in the US on the values of food allergen identification on restaurant menus, although it is voluntary.
Studies examining students’ learningbehavior predominantly employed rich video data as their main source of information due to the limited knowledge of computer vision and deep learning algorithms. However, one of the challenges faced during such observation is the strenuous task of coding large amounts of video data through repeated viewings. In this research, we confirm the possibilities of classifying students’ learning behavior using data obtained from multimodal distribution. We employed computer algorithms to classify students’ learning behavior in animated programming classrooms and used information from this classification to predict learning outcomes. Specifically, our study indicates the presence of three clusters of students in the domain of “stay active”, “stay passive”, and “to-passive”. We also found a relationship between these profiles and learning outcomes. We discussed our findings in accordance with the engagement and instructional quality models and believed that our statistical approach will support the ongoing refinement of the models in the context of behavioral profiling and classroom interaction. We recommend that further studies should identify different epistemological frames in diverse classroom settings to provide sufficient explanations of students’ learning processes.
Every information on an online review has a different impact on individual's decision‐making process. This difference is attributed to the individual's attribution of responsibility, which influences their cognition. In this study, a survey and eye‐tracker were used to conduct a study on restaurant reviews between two groups of participants (U.S. and Japan). Result suggests that the presentation of food in an image has a stronger impact on the Japanese respondents than it is for Americans. Between the two groups of participants, Americans focused more on the positive ratings, whereas Japanese focus on the extreme end of the ratings (1‐star vs. 5‐star). The distribution of the star ratings, which forms a particular letter shape (e.g., E) also has an impact on respondents' decision‐making process. Results show that Americans fixate on the shape of the distribution 7–8 times longer than the Japanese respondents. The result in this study suggests that the cultural cognition and attribution of responsibility, which is reflected in respondents' cultural dimensions (e.g., monumentalism vs. flexhumility), need to be considered. These considerations will affect how a company presents their information on a review site so that the content resonates and aids in their consumers' decision‐making process.
High quality and sufficiently numerous data are fundamental to developing any machine learning model. In the absence of a prior estimate on the optimal amount of data needed for modeling a specific system, data collection ends up either producing too little for effective training or too much of it causing waste of critical resources. Here we examine the issue on some publicly available low-dimensional data sets by developing models with progressively larger data subsets and monitoring their predictive performances, employing random forest as the classification model in each case. We try to provide an initial guess for optimum data size requirement for a considered feature set size using Random Forest Classifier. This sample size is also suggested for other machine learning (ML) models, subject to their trainability on the dataset. We also investigate how the data quality impacts its size requirement by introducing incremental noise to original class labels. We observe that optimal data size remained robust for up to 2% class label errors, suggesting that ML models are capable of picking up the most informative data instances as long as there are sufficient number of objects to learn.KeywordsSample size estimationTraining data sizeMachine learning modelsLearning curveRandom forestNoisy data
Purpose
As sports sponsorship is a common marketing tool among commercial organisations, there had been a large number of studies examining the effectiveness of sponsorship. The aim of this study is to examine whether colour affects sponsorship effectiveness on printed advertisements of sports events. This is an area that has received less research interest.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 85 participants were randomly assigned to a control group and three experimental groups. In each of the groups, the participants viewed an advertisement of a sports event on a computer linked to an eye tracker. In the control group, the logos of sponsors were in their original colours. In each of the three experimental groups, the logos were manipulated and featured greyscale, blue or red backgrounds.
Findings
The study found that sponsor recall and recognition rates were highest for the control group. Visual attention was also the highest in the control group.
Research limitations/implications
The findings suggest that manipulating colours of the sponsors' logos can negatively affect attention and sponsorship effectiveness.
Originality/value
While there exist studies that focus on the effects of colour in sponsorship, they are typically conducted with regard to physically attending the event itself. However, sponsorship involves other marketing collaterals such as printed advertisements on the event. In such mediums, colour contrast is also important in print advertisements as it affects readability and legibility. As such, the examination of effect of colour on such marketing collaterals provides additional empirical support to the phenomenon.
We investigate how individuals process electronic word‐of‐mouth (eWOM) about jobs and employers on social media. Employing eye‐tracking methodology, our study investigated: (1) the cognitive processing of positive and negative eWOM hosted on social media; (2) the factors influencing job seekers' cognitive processing of eWOM; and (3) the factors influencing perceptions of the credibility of eWOM as a source of employer information. Our results suggest the following. First, job seekers devote more attention to negative compared with positive eWOM. Second, existing employer knowledge in terms of familiarity and reputation influences how positive and negative eWOM are processed. Lastly, employer reputation and job search effort enhance one's perceptions of the credibility of eWOM. Overall, this research provides insights into the cognitive processing of online employer information and its implications for job search, recruitment, and employer branding.
Prior studies have examined into the importance of the effect of online reviews on product sales, the valence of online reviews on decision-making. However, few studies have focused on the informational and normative influences on consumers’ acquisition of information on product review pages, and how those influences affect consumers’ purchasing intent. Through a quantitative survey and an eye-tracking method, the impact of each components of a product review site (informational and normative influences) and their purchasing intentions were measured. The results suggest that the user-interface of a social commerce site should be localized to encourage higher sales conversions. Based on the fixation results, among all the product review page components, Japanese pay more attention to the product description, whereas Americans pay more attention to the product rating, regardless of the product type (hedonic versus utilitarian). Managerial implications include adjusting the positioning of the product review page components differently for their target audience, especially on their product list page where each product has a limited amount of descriptions.
Images of people are often featured in business-to-business print advertisements. In some cases, person images in B2B ads may be perceived as having little or no pragmatic purpose in promoting the brand or product. The current research examines the effects of the presence of a celebrity or non-celebrity person in a B2B print ad on attention to the ad, hedonic and utilitarian attitudes towards the ad, and on aided brand recall. An eye-tracking study featured three experimental B2B ad conditions (i.e., no person, non-celebrity person, and celebrity person) conducted with business managers. The findings of this study suggest that while the presence of a celebrity endorser causes managers to pay more attention to the ad, the increase in time focusing on the advertisement brings about more negative hedonic attitudes towards the ad. Further, a celebrity endorser can reduce utilitarian attitudes towards the ad. An ad featuring a non-celebrity produced the highest brand recall.
Recent advances in technology have increased the accessibility and ease in using eye-tracking as a research tool. These advances have the potential to benefit behavioral accounting researchers' understanding of the cognitive processes underlying individuals' judgments, decisions, and behaviors. However, despite its potential and wide use in other disciplines, few behavioral accounting studies use eye-tracking. The purpose of this paper is to familiarize accounting researchers with eye-tracking, including its advantages and limitations as a research tool. We start by providing an overview of eye-tracking and discussing essential terms and useful metrics, as well as the psychological constructs they proxy. We then summarize eye-tracking research across research domains, review accounting studies that use eye-tracking, and identify future research directions across accounting topics. Finally, we provide an instructional resource to guide those researchers interested in using eye-tracking, including important considerations at each stage of the study.
JEL Classifications: M41; C91.
Technological advances in recent years have greatly lowered the barriers for using eye tracking (ET) as a research tool in laboratory and field settings. However, despite its potential and widespread application in other disciplines, the use of ET in organizational research remains sparse. This article therefore aims to introduce ET, and thus a new mode of behavioral data, to the field of organizational research. Based on a synthesis of prior literature, we propose an integrative taxonomy that unravels the methodological potential of ET as well as its scope of application. Building on our proposed taxonomy, we systematically review the use of ET in leading management journals and reflect on the current state of research. We further illustrate future avenues for ET in the domains of strategic management, entrepreneurship, and human resources to contribute to the method’s future dissemination and to the advancement of organizational science as well.
Smart healthcare has become one of the most important issues for practitioners and researchers. In this study, we investigated the effects of social popularity and time scarcity on online consumer perceptions of smart healthcare products. To achieve this, we employed signaling theory and a laboratory-based eye-tracking design. We then collected both questionnaire and user visual fixation data for analysis. We found that social popularity is important with regard to consumers' trust, perceived product quality, and perceived value. Further, the questionnaire data showed that time scarcity is only important for perceived product quality and perceived value. We also found that time scarcity has a significant influence on online consumers’ fixation attention. Moreover, interaction effects were found among the variables.
In recent years, big data has emerged as one of the prominent buzzwords in business and management. In spite of the mounting body of research on big data across the social science disciplines, scholars have offered little synthesis on the current state of knowledge. To take stock of academic research that contributes to the big data revolution, this paper tracks scholarly work's perspectives on big data in the management domain over the past decade. We identify key themes emerging in management studies and develop an integrated framework to link the multiple streams of research in fields of organisation, operations, marketing, information management and other relevant areas. Our analysis uncovers a growing awareness of big data's business values and managerial changes led by data-driven approach. Stemming from the review is the suggestion for research that both structured and unstructured big data should be harnessed to advance understanding of big data value in informing organisational decisions and enhancing firm competitiveness. To discover the full value, firms need to formulate and implement a data-driven strategy. In light of these, the study identifies and outlines the implications and directions for future research.
An eye tracking methodology can help uncover subtle cognitive processing stages that are otherwise difficult to observe in visualization evaluation studies. Pros and cons of eye tracking methods are discussed here, including common analysis metrics. One example metric is the initial time at which all elements of a visualization that are required to complete a task have been viewed. An illustrative eye tracking study was conducted to compare how radial and linear graphs support value lookup tasks for both one and two data-dimensions. Linear and radial versions of bar, line, area, and scatter graphs were presented to 32 participants, who each completed a counterbalanced series of tasks. Tasks were completed more quickly on linear graphs than on those with a radial layout. Scanpath analysis revealed that a three-stage processing model was supported: (1) find desired data dimension, (2) find its datapoint, and (3) map the datapoint to its value. Mapping a datapoint to its value was slower on radial than linear graphs, probably because eyes need to follow a circular, as opposed to a linear path. Finding a datapoint within a dimension was harder using line and area graphs than bar and scatter graphs, possibly due to visual confusion of the line representing a data series. Although few errors were made, eye tracking was also used here to classify error strategies. As a result of these analyses, guidelines are proposed for the design of radial and linear graphs.
Information visualization (InfoVis), the study of transforming data, information, and knowledge into interactive visual representations, is very important to users because it provides mental models of information. The boom in big data analytics has triggered broad use of InfoVis in a variety of domains, ranging from finance to sports to politics. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey and key insights into this fast-rising area. The research on InfoVis is organized into a taxonomy that contains four main categories, namely empirical methodologies, user interactions, visualization frameworks, and applications, which are each described in terms of their major goals, fundamental principles, recent trends, and state-of-the-art approaches. At the conclusion of this survey, we identify existing technical challenges and propose directions for future research.
This paper compares two alternative methodologies—the experimental–behavioral approach and the contingent approach—for measuring the value that an attribute of a good (product or service) creates for potential customers. In the experimental–behavioral methodology, potential buyers make actual purchase decisions by receiving financial incentives. In the contingent approach, commonplace in marketing research and purchase decisions are hypothetical. A case–control experiment shows that both methodologies discriminate between key and less relevant attributes in purchase decisions, and provide reliable qualitative information on the value of an attribute. Contingent methodologies fail, however, to provide a reliable quantitative measure of such value.
A great deal of real-world data have graph structures, and such structures are often visualized into node-link diagrams for a better understanding of the data. Aesthetic criteria have been used as quality measures to evaluate the effectiveness of graph visualizations in conveying the embedded information to end users. However, commonly applied aesthetics are originally proposed based on common senses and personal intuitions; thus, their relevance to effectiveness is not guaranteed. It has been agreed that aesthetics should be established based on empirical evidence and derived from theories of how people read graphs. As the first step to this end, we have conducted two eye tracking studies in an attempt to understand the underlying mechanism of edge crossings, the most discussed aesthetic, affecting human graph reading performance. These studies lead to the findings of an important aesthetic of crossing angles and a graph reading behavior of geodesic path tendency. We demonstrate that eye tracking is an effective method for gaining insights into how people read graphs and that how aesthetics can be established based on human graph reading behavior.
Graphs have been an essential tool for the analysis and communication of statistical data for about 200 years. Despite widespread use and their importance in science, business, and many other walks of life, relatively little is known about how people perceive and process statistical graphs. This article reviews several empirical studies designed to explore the suitability of various graphs for a variety of purposes, and discusses the relevant theoretical psychological literature. The role of traditional psychophysics is considered, especially in connection with the long-running dispute concerning the relative merits of pie and bar charts. The review also discusses experiments on the perception of scatterplots and the use of multivariate displays, and points out the need for more empirical work.
Empirical evidence concerning how group package tourists react to the different combinations of advertising components is scant, leaving unresolved issues in an important research arena. Therefore, the specific purpose of the present study is to identify the optimal numbers and combinations of advertising components on travel web pages and their contributions to advertising effectiveness. An experimental design was employed; sixteen experimental groups were surveyed. In total, 843 student informants participated in the study. The results found that informants will reflect different degrees of advertising effectiveness in response to different combinations of advertising components; and more components will induce a better attitude towards-the-ad and greater inclination to purchase. In addition, when the number of advertising components is increased, an inverted “U” curve of advertising effectiveness won't be observed, but the hypothesis of a partially curvilinear response can be accepted. Finally, some implications of these findings for travel managers and designers of travel-related web pages are discussed, along with some areas requiring further research.
In this paper, we describe a user study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of two different data visualization techniques developed for describing complex environmental changes in an interactive system designed to foster awareness in sustainable development. While several studies have compared alternative visualizations, the distinguishing feature of our research is that we try to understand whether individual user differences may be used as predictors of visualization effectiveness in choosing among alternative visualizations for a given task. We show that the cognitive ability known as perceptual speed can predict which one of our target visualizations is most effective for a given user. This result suggests that tailored visualization selection can be an effective way to improve user performance.
Node-link diagrams are an effective and popular visualization approach for depicting hierarchical structures and for showing parent-child relationships. In this paper, we present the results of an eye tracking experiment investigating traditional, orthogonal, and radial node-link tree layouts as a piece of empirical basis for choosing between those layouts. Eye tracking was used to identify visual exploration behaviors of participants that were asked to solve a typical hierarchy exploration task by inspecting a static tree diagram: finding the least common ancestor of a given set of marked leaf nodes. To uncover exploration strategies, we examined fixation points, duration, and saccades of participants' gaze trajectories. For the non-radial diagrams, we additionally investigated the effect of diagram orientation by switching the position of the root node to each of the four main orientations. We also recorded and analyzed correctness of answers as well as completion times in addition to the eye movement data. We found out that traditional and orthogonal tree layouts significantly outperform radial tree layouts for the given task. Furthermore, by applying trajectory analysis techniques we uncovered that participants cross-checked their task solution more often in the radial than in the non-radial layouts.
Radial visualizations play an important role in the information visualization community. But the decision to choose a radial coordinate system is rather based on intuition than on scientific foundations. The empirical approach presented in this paper aims at uncovering strengths and weaknesses of radial visualizations by comparing them to equivalent ones in Cartesian coordinate systems. We identified memorizing positions of visual elements as a generic task when working with visualizations. A first study with 674 participants provides a broad data spectrum for exploring differences between the two visualization types. A second, complementing study with fewer participants focuses on further questions raised by the first study. Our findings document that Cartesian visualizations tend to outperform their radial counterparts especially with respect to answer times. Nonetheless, radial visualization seem to be more appropriate for focusing on a particular data dimension.