How revealing are eye-movements for understanding web engagement in young children

Abstract

This paper presents a critical review of eye tracking as a research approach and evaluates its potential for usability testing in pre-school children. We argue that eye-tracking data is useful for assessing web engagement in this age-group, but only if triangulated against other usability methods. Recommendations for potential usability methods to use in tandem with eye-tracking are presented as part of a work in progress within a joint partner project between the University of Salford (UK) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) exploring best-fit methodologies for understanding web engagement in young children.