Designing multi media user interfaces with eye recording data

An eye movement recording experiment has been carried out to pinpoint the control of the primary attention focus. The user's attention focus is strongly influenced by dynamic processes on the screen. E.g., if a pop up menu of an appropriate size automatically appears on the static screen, then the user's attention focus changes to this new element. The results of our investigation indicate that design of a multi media screen layout can be validated and optimised using eye recording data. INTRODUCTION One important problem in interface design of multi media interfaces is making appropriate design decisions regarding the positioning of visual feedback (e.g., messages, animation windows, icons, etc.) on the screen. While highlighting techniques can aid the user in locating important messages, it is not always possible to predict what may be important to the user at a given time. The traditional solution is a mask layout that allows the user to easily find any of the information on it by adopting a consistent format for all masks of a character user interface (CUI) [1]. In the context of the design of graphic user interfaces (GUIs) important messages are placed in the centre of the screen [5]. This solution is based on the strategy of minimising the distance between the unknown locus of the primary attention focus (PAF) of the user and the locus of the message on the screen. The unanswered question is: what is an optimal screen layout? Where is the best place to put visual feedback on the screen? How the primary attention focus can be controlled by the dynamic on the screen? Results of an eye recording experiment can be used to optimise the strategy to control and influence the PAF. One major determinant is attention both of the context and quality of perception [4]. It is known that at least the following variables play a role in controlling dynamic visual attention [2] [3]: (1) the rate at which the display varies: the greater the bandwidth is, the more frequently is the display sampled; (2) the value of the information: the more the information is worth, the more frequently is the display sampled; (3) the cost of observation: the more costly an observation is, the less frequently is the display sampled; (4) forgetting: as the time since the last observation elapses, the user becomes less certain of the value of the last observed information even if it varies only slightly or not at all; (5) the coupling between displays. To investigate the causes of visual attention control in man computer interaction we have to measure eye movements in the context of different conditions. We try to prove the hypothesis that eye movements correlate with dynamic structures on the screen. To do this we carried out an eye movement recording experiment. The main assumption is that the visual focus measured with eye movement recording can be controlled by popping up windows and boxes at several positions on a screen.