Eye Tracking and Digital Signage

February 6, 2017

It seems like we’re always coming up with new ways to advance the customer experience and make things easier and more secure. One of the latest breakthroughs in our digital world could completely revolutionize the marketing industry: using eye-tracking capabilities.

The Forefront of Technology

Eye-tracking technology (ETT) is exactly how it sounds. Special software is designed to follow the eye movement of viewers. It not only follows the actual movement, but also tracks the time spent in each area. ETT holds incredible potential in the marketing world. It not only encourages customers to focus on specific parts of digital signage, but it can also influence how they make purchasing decisions. ETT could very well be the future of advertising altogether.

How Eye Tracking Helps Businesses

The most important thing about a marketing campaign is whether it’s successful. Do people respond to the image, or do they gloss over it as quickly as possible? Are they taking in important information, or are they simply distracted by graphics or colors? Before now, it was almost impossible to determine these factors – especially without hours of viewing the actions of the eyes. ETT takes hours of work and condenses them into instant results.

The main reason ETT is so important is because it offers new insight into the way ads translate into the real world. It tests the effectiveness by measuring actual human responses instead of simply making an educated guess. This is especially useful when trying to hone in on a specific demographic because you can look for patterns that your target group displays.

The Heat Maps

The best information in the world won’t matter if you don’t know how to decipher it. With eye-tracking software, you see results in a way that makes sense naturally. ETT can analyze and display “heat maps” that represent the path of the eye and how much time it spends there in one convenient measure. The longer that eyes rest on a certain spot, the “warmer” the spot becomes. This is a fantastic tool for reexamining web page layouts, as it clearly shows where each viewer spends the most time. It can help show patterns too. Studies showed that people do not read the text on screens or webpages word-by-word, but instead generally read horizontally across the top of the page, then in a second horizontal movement slightly lower on the page, and lastly scan vertically down the left side of the screen , like reading in an “F” formation.

Eye-tracking technology can sound a bit intimidating, but it’s an incredible opportunity. You can see specific information about the sections of your page to provide the most engaging experience. With so many great developments on the horizon, it’s exciting to wonder what they’ll think of next.

TallySoft has decades of experience in the retail industry, and knows the solutions that get results for retailers across the nation. Looking to boost your retail business technology? Contact the experts at TallySoft today.