Using Scarf Plots to Visualize Moment-to-Moment Visual Search Behavior on Websites

Abstract

Despite a large number of metrics and eye-tracking data visualization techniques allowing us to study information search on the Internet, the moment-to-moment dynamics of this process has not been taken into account. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to show the interest of visualization methods such as scarf plots. An adaptation of these visualizations has been developed and applied to a dataset of 46 participants who have performed an information search task on a website. Compared to the techniques usually used, our approach allows us, on the one hand, to illustrate the information search behaviors of each individual in one figure (the total duration of the search, the path of the web pages, the number of web pages, the duration of web page exploration, the areas of interest explored, etc.), and on the other hand, to juxtapose several individuals, thus allowing us to easily compare and categorize them.