Browsing by Subject "eye movement"

Animations are a way to visualize change and bring inanimate objects life. Today, they are all arounds us: on digital billboards, info screens in shopping malls, websites and in our mobile phones. Major technology companies, such as Apple and Google have established their own guidelines for using movement and animations in digital interfaces. Yet, there is surprisingly little formal research on the topic. The question is, what are these guidelines based on? Existing research focuses on subjective perception of time, animation principles as well as combination of animations and sound in improving comprehension. However, systematic comparison between animation types and their effects on interfaces is absent from present literature. Therefore, this study answers how animation type impacts performance and change detection rates in visual tasks. This study was conducted as an empirical experiment, for which ten participants were recruited using university’s mailing lists. The experiment was carried out using a standard computer monitor, keyboard and head-mounted eye tracking equipment. Participants performed a dual task, consisting of five blocks of equal duration. The goal of the primary task was to keep attention in one part of the screen, and in secondary task participants reacted to visual changes animated on the screen. Performance in both tasks was measured using a combination of reaction times, verbal reports and eye tracking data. Data was analyzed with ANOVA as well as linear and generalized linear regression models, depending on the type of data under scrutiny. Presence of animations greatly improved reaction times and comprehension of change. Additionally, verbal reports differed considerably between animations, as did missed responses to the primary task. In other words, certain animations were noticed and reported with greater reliability and impaired performance in a simultaneous task less than other animations. In this regard, Slide animation performed best of the ones used in this study. In addition to finding measurable differences between animation types, the results were used to contribute to interaction design by establishing general animation guidelines. These guidelines are outlined at the end of this thesis.