What scroll can teach us about web users ?

Overview & Synopsis

Understanding why a user is on a webpage is a good way to deduce his or her interest in the content. To measure this interest, Eye-tracking is a precise tool that allows to estimate goal impact on user’s eye-gaze. However, this method is hard to scale up, that is why mouse-tracking models emerged as an efficient proxy to determine user’s attention. These same models mainly use mouse movements, mouse clicks and hovered page elements while considering scrolling as a simple model feature. In addition to these analyses, other studies focused on how the eye behave during onscreen reading using scroll. During our exploratory research we analysed users’ eye-gaze behaviour on webpages while scrolling. In order to accomplish this, we asked local Signal Processing department students to visit ten websites divided in three task groups : target finding, free viewing and text reading. Our preliminary results show a link between initial eye position and scroll speed. We divided the screen in six different areas and found out that depending on which area the eye was focusing on, participants adapted their scroll speed. This could reflect cognitive load in progress. Furthermore, we discovered that when the eye-gaze preceding the scroll goes in the same direction as the scroll, the scroll is faster.