How eyetracking helps website redesigns: an Eyetools case-study

Client realizes 10x increase in click-throughs after redesigning a homepage guided by three Eyetools mini-studies.
Test #1 of Existing (old) Page	Test #2 of Prototypes	Test #3 of (new) "Best practices" Page	Launch
Most content wasn't seen. Most people preferred the competition.	3 prototypes generated based on data from test #1. Prototypes were quickly generated as images (can test image-mock-ups or HTML).	Most successful elements of each prototype from test #2 pulled together into a final prototype. Most content now seen. Most preferred this website over competitor. An entire column of paid-content was added, and was economically successful.	Click-throughs increased by 10x times. Satisfaction increased by double. Faster redesign — entire process took less than 45 days from start to launch (including the three tests) because all the parties involved agreed on what was working and what needed fixing.

A PDF of this homepage redesign using Eyetools eyetracking can be found here (4 pages, 905 K, images of a site before/after, plus Eyetools heatmaps).

Guiding a website redesign with Eyetools eyetracking data offers these advantages:

• Objective, visual feedback to your designers and copywriters about what works and what doesn't,
• Test before launching — don't launch a mistake that loses traffic,
• Remove "opinion-based discussions" (and guess-work) about what is seen.

Comments

[Healing the Body]

There appears very little difference between the before and after images. Certainly, the newer revised version is elongated, and there are more pictures, staggered, to draw the visitor down below the fold. It is a study worthy of evaluation and experimentation, though without the eyetracking feedback, it may just be academic. Good stuff.