An eye-tracking study of web search interaction design patterns

Abstract

The term 'design pattern' was initially introduced in the architectural field and passed into computer science via software engineering. The idea also grew in the HCI domain in the form of interaction design (ID) patterns, which outline common UI design problems along with suggested solution(s) based on theory, good practice and perceivable interaction behavior. In this paper, a study is presented that focuses on how web users perceive and use available interaction design patterns when they search for specific information on specific sites. To this end, a set of testing scenarios were designed and users were monitored using eye-tracking, a method that collects rich data and allows for detailed study of user visual behavior, apart from navigational actions. The paper concludes on how successfully patterns have been deployed and which are the patterns users seem to prefer.