Andrew DeVigal outlines some of the preliminary findings and observations of the Stanford Poynter Eye-Track Research study. Final results are expected at the beginning of 2000, he says.

I. Where Eye-Tracking Ranks in Research

A. Online Survey
B. Log Tracking
C. Focus Groups & Survey
D. Eye Tracking & Post Questionnaire

II. The Stanford Poynter Project: Eye-Track Research collaborative study between The Poynter Institute, Stanford University's Department of Communications, and the Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI). The Stanford researchers are Marion Lewenstein of the Department of Communications; Greg Edwards, the project leader for the Advanced Eye Interpretation Project, of CSLI; and Deborah Tatar, a research associate.

A. Subject Recruitment & Criteria

1. Subjects are recruited through a news brief and an article published in the local newspaper's website and print edition. San Jose Mercury News in California, the St. Petersburg Times in the Tampa Bay Area, and the Chicago Sun Times in Chicago.

2. Subjects must read online news at least three times a week.

3. Those with bifocals, or those who experience constant migraines or are susceptible to seizures, are prescreened.

4. The task: simulate a single session of their reading/browsing online news.

B. Statistics & Logistics

1. Three city/region study: Northern California, Tampa Bay Area, and Chicago.

2. 25-30 subjects per city, though we will go through 35 to 40 interviews to get 25 to 30 usable subject.

C. Computer Setup

1. Computer browsing with Communicator 4.0 or Internet Explorer 4.0 connected to a T1 line. Monitor set to 800x600.

2. Subjects are asked to bring a disk copy of their bookmarks, or a list of bookmarks or asked to simply type in their URLs.

3. Standard plug-ins such as RealAudio, Shockwave, and Flash are preinstalled.

4. The Eye Tracker.

D. Software

The software included the Eye Tracker machine's EyeLink software, which tracked the eye movements of the subjects and Greg Edwards' proprietary software, which has three main features:

1. Capture Software (automated):

a. Captures eye movements and deciphers patterns such as reading, searching, and scanning.

b. Captures the entire screen every five seconds and every instance of a mouse click, an arrow key, page up, and page down.

c. Captures a small thumbnail of the eye's focus every fraction of a second.

d. Captures time.

2. Describer Software: A coding tool that allows a researcher to define elements of the web page.

a. Define the state of the screen (the launch of a browser and a change to a different news provider).

b. Define the elements of the screen such as the Windows tool bar, the browser's chrome, and active space.

c. Define the elements of a web page.

d. Define the content (news, sports, features, breaking news, etc.).

3. Analyzer Software: Once all areas are defined, the data is sent to an SQL (Structured Query Language) database where we can ask questions referencing across several levels of information at once. [Examples expressed in sentence].

a. (easy) How much time was spent reading in proportion to total time?

b. (medium) What are the content types of briefs that were read and clicked on to get the full story?

E. The Process

1. Respond to online and print promotion by e-mail.
2. Prescreening to qualify for the study by telephone interview.
3. Fill out demographic sheet at study location.
4. Eye Tracker is setup.
5. Subjects read/browse their online news while being observed by a researcher and video taped.
6. Post questionnaire qualifying some behavior based on observations.

III. First Tentative Report from Marion Lewenstein, based on preliminary research study before the start of the official Stanford-Poynter Project. Here are some highlights that we have found consistent through current observational-only data

A. Interweave news sites: most people interlaced between sites, moving back and forth between them by topic, often times comparing or getting more information. In addition, many wanted to read more on items they had read, heard, or seen earlier in newspapers, radio, or TV.

B. Checking the news throughout the day: many people would "dip" into their online news sources in the morning and then return to them in the afternoon and evening.

C. Familiarity: Subjects commented often that they had bookmarked newspaper sites from places where they had formerly lived or where they still had relatives.

D. Customized news: A few (1/3 in the original study) subjects customize their online news sites. However, they always moved on to general news sites, specifically commenting that they want to stay well informed on many subjects.