I did this project while in university in an effort to become more familiar with eyetracking technologies and their potential applications and to better understand how videogame development platforms like Unity could leverage such technologies as a competitive advantage.

I started by looking at current eyetracking implementations across multiple industries, giving special attention to the retail sector. Then I looked at different eyetracking solutions, ranging from experimental to fully deployed products. While a majority of these solutions required special hardware to track eye movement, some of them allowed measurement with laptop and phone cameras.

Realizing I could get my hands on some of this tech without having to make any hardware investments I moved forward with making a mini-experiment using RealEye (one of the multiple solutions in the market). Due to my interest in videogames, I decided to do an experiment setup where multiple participants would look at videogame app logos. Each participant was shown a mosaic of app logos for a few seconds while RealEye gathered data.

Early results showed that participants are more likely to look at apps featuring faces (both human and non-human), followed by objects, and then text. Participants were also more drawn to logos categorized as “high-complexity”, where there was a higher degree of detail.

This type of experiment could be built upon to get more insights for marketing and branding to make their app stand out more in app stores, as well as potentially increasing in-app purchases.