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A View Worth $ Millions Know where the hotspots and dead zones are as defined by your viewers and make the most of promotional content.Million dollar views are common in Real Estate, and are increasingly common in Advertising. Where viewers look; on screen, in an ad or in a video affects millions of dollars of advertising. AnswerLab recently completed a project with a global media outlet, utilizing eye-tracking to understand behavior regarding specific formats. The company was looking to understand detailed metrics for planning new video advertising. Eye-tracking reports proved particularly effective in helping our client understand the relationship between cognitive and behavioral results. We were able to answer our clients specific questions about disconnects between reaction and recall. This is the difference between what viewers said they saw and what gaze plots show they saw, or the difference between stated tolerance levels, and actual view-time erosion. Additionally, we offered details in how advertising blindness is a function of conditioning. We tested pre roll, overlay and scrolling trailer formats. While some formats performed far better than expected, others weren’t successful at prompting response. While there was an interesting disconnects between what viewers thought they saw, and what they actually looked at, the simple fact remains that portions of the site which were not viewed at all will have no chance of affecting behavior. When viewers reported seeing or understanding a particular advertisement “more” the stimulus may or may not have had a longer screen time, increased prominence or view time. However it was definitely viewed. These are the metrics that can be measured to determine design and adverting plans that can optimize revenue while minimizing viewer fatigue. Although eye tracking technology has strong ROI in advertising, these behavioral results are used to uncover improvements in retail, financial services and other navigation intensive situations. Mobilizing a Desktop Application Introducing a mobile application from a desktop solution takes ruthless focus on features and design elements.AnswerLab recently partnered with a virtual meeting provider to conduct in-depth user experience research on how business users could increase productivity through conferencing on a smart phone. Judging by the ease of getting volunteers from the existing client database, the team was confident in the interest level for the product. They were less sure of the impact that the small screen and cellular data infrastructure would have on their users. AnswerLab worked with them to conduct two stages of prototype testing on iteratively improved prototypes. In the first stage we evaluated how users interacted with a mobile prototype that was portrayed on a computer screen. After the initial round of testing we conducted another round on an improved design. Our detailed findings and recommendations provided the development team with a plan to work from as they refined their feature development list. After a month of development, a prototype on a mobile device was ready and the testing was smooth. Several hurdles like multi-tasking, and file access provided real stumbling blocks for testers who were power users of the desktop system. The end result was that the design team had clear understanding of features their users wanted, and roadblocks to overcome. Their roadmap of what to fix and what to build was well documented, supported by sound research and easily shared through the organization. Localization Changes – or Not International software requires you to make changes, but not to everything – you need to determine what to customize and what can stay the same.User testing with sample users in California and Taiwan yielded some interesting results and insights on how the birth of the Internet in the western world has influenced habits and expectations elsewhere. Closing out a study of search expectations across target users in two diverse locations enabled our team to reflect on how habit informs expectations. In testing design alternatives for one of our global media partners, we found that preference for page elements like buttons and aids were dramatically different. Both test groups preferred the same top level navigation design, and by a similarly large margin. This was curious as there were design selections that were optimized for the different reading styles of right to left for western cultures, and top to bottom for eastern. One particular right to left format, with a tonal color scheme (instead of a more brightly colored scheme) was vastly preferred by both audiences. Shocking? Not really… Most countries started accessing US based Internet sites long before there was any idea of localization. Most web developers in the early years were enthralled with the technology, as were the users. As the web has matured, user experience has become a key differentiator for many products and services. Testing design options can be a crucial step on the path to success because users still do the strangest things! For more detail, check out our blog post!  
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These AnswerLab services may be useful for you: |
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Quantitative Competitive Evaluation Learn where your offering is superior and where your competitors are beating you. |
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Rapid Iterative Testing Gather quick and targeted user feedback without slowing down your development cycle. |
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Remote User Testing Obtain feedback from nationally targeted users in their natural environment - without expensive travel and facility costs. |
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Mobile
Testing Find out how users interact with mobile applications. |
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