A research method that uses hardware or software to record where users look on a screen and for how long. Eye tracking produces gaze plots and heatmaps revealing which elements capture attention, in what sequence, and which content is consistently overlooked — informing decisions about layout, hierarchy, and visual emphasis.
Common contexts
- Testing whether a landing page hero message is read before the user's eye jumps to surrounding imagery
- Evaluating a complex dashboard to determine whether critical data is being noticed or consistently skipped
- Comparing two navigation designs to see which one produces faster path recognition to key destinations
Use when
When attention and visual hierarchy are the primary research questions, particularly for high-stakes layouts like landing pages, dashboards, or onboarding screens where the reading path directly affects conversion or task success.
Avoid when
Don't use eye tracking as a substitute for understanding user intent — knowing where someone looked doesn't explain why, and gaze data without contextual interviews can lead to optimizing for attention rather than comprehension.
Eye tracking often confirms what a good designer already suspects about hierarchy — its real value is the political credibility it gives to design recommendations that stakeholders would otherwise dismiss as subjective opinion.
Real-world examples
- Nielsen Norman Group used eye tracking studies to establish the F-pattern and Z-pattern reading behaviors on web pages, findings that continue to influence content layout best practices.
- Google used eye tracking research to understand how users scan search results pages, informing changes to how ads are labeled and how organic results are displayed.
- The BBC used eye tracking to optimize the layout of their news homepage, discovering that users fixated heavily on images before text, leading to adjustments in hero image sizing and placement.