Surf*Mind*Musings

We’ve just released an AIR-based browser that simulates human vision, to provide insights into your site design and task flows. Props to the gang at Nitobi, who helped me put this AIR code together from my static image prototype, and to my employer StomperNet, who decided to make a big deal of giving this away for free on Xmas eve!

I first had this idea back in ‘03, somewhere between Andrew Duchowski’s eye-tracking class and CHI ‘03 where I caught Hornof & Halverson’s “Cognitive Strategies and Eye Movements for Searching Hierarchical Displays” (PDF). This research showed that the eyes can jump to headings very rapidly, no matter where the eyes were on the page. Unlike your hand-guided mouse, your eyes aren’t subject to Fitt’s Law. Distance is irrelevant, within the context of normal computer ergonomics, only whitespace, contrast, and detectability with peripheral vision matters.

This realization has shaped a lot of my UI surface-level insights over the years. We put together a video on how to use the Stomper Scrutinizer browser to help generate these types of insights. Here’s the Top Ten Things you can do with the Scrutinizer:

1. Simulate eye tracking in a usability task
2. Assess the ease of use of multi-step processes
3. Give your designer a fresh pair of eyes
4. Find out what “pops” in your design
5. Conduct findability challenges
6. Ask: does your visual grid work?
7. Evaluate your site’s contrast levels
8. Insure learnability in your template
9. Avoid button gravity errors
10. Tell the story of how your eyes work

Give the Scrutinizer download a try — if you have the lastest flash player, it will upgrade or install the AIR runtime auto-magically.

And happy holidays!