WPI Research is the research magazine of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It contains news and features about graduate research in the arts and sciences, business, and engineering, along with notes about new grants, books, and faculty achievements.
Issue link: http://wpiresearch.epubxp.com/i/229254
From left, Soussan Djamasbi, associate professor of management information systems, and Xue "Anny" Luan and Jingmin "Pat" Qiu, MS candidates in marketing and technology innovation, use an eye-tracking system. The system can be used to explore what users focus on when looking at a web page (the top two images are from a 2007 study that showed that people noticed a simpler "bricklet" in the top right of the screen more than a colorful one). The system can also be used to determine how people take in information on mobile devices. The bottom two illustrations show a heat map (how long people look at different areas) and a gaze map (what they look at and in what order). (Photo by Patrick O'Connor) McAuliffe says conducting usability research at WPI helps his company's designers be proactive, not reactive, by evaluating the user experience before a product launches, rather than waiting to make fxes based on user feedback after the product is already in the feld. Dyn's initial award to Djamasbi allowed her to establish a specialized lab and move her eye-tracking equipment from her offce into dedicated space. The company recently facilitated a new award valued at over $170,000 (including a generous contribution from Tobii, a leader in manufacturing eye-tracking equipment) that made it possible for the lab to acquire new workstations and expand, creating separate spaces for the testing stations and the analysis stations. Separating recording and analysis will augment the lab's research and development capacity and, Djamasbi notes, help "ensure WPI's status as a thought leader in teaching and scholarship in the user experience area." And she hopes the expansion will pave the way for greater collaboration with other researchers at WPI and research partnerships with an even greater number of companies. Djamasbi says she is also looking forward to using her equipment and expertise to expand into new domains, including felds where the usability research has yet to have a signifcant impact on the user experience such as video games, robotics, in-vehicle displays, computer-based learning, and mobile healthcare apps. Djamasbi's students say they are excited by the farreaching implications of their eye-tracking work. "It is so simple and so profound," says Dhiren Mehta '12, who helped Djamasbi set up the lab as an MIS graduate student. "It has endless possibilities." "It tells you what people are drawn to without their having to tell you," says Michelle Mulkern '15, a biotechnology major who has worked in the UXDM lab. "It's inspiring to think that we might be able to help people with cognitive disabilities who could beneft from websites tailored to their needs." For the time being, Djamasbi and her team are looking forward to the impact they can continue to have within the domain of commerce. "We can help people make better and more effective decisions based on how they use and process information," she says. "This is huge for business. I think in a few years this will be a standard procedure in every company as the equipment becomes more accessible. There is a need for this and we can deliver it effectively." Re Worcester Polytechnic Institute > 49