Touch the future, and get 100ms ahead of the crowd…
How Eye Tracking could Help to Detect Subtle but Lasting Advantages in the Creation of a Mobile Intercafe. (Bezug Mobile Intercafe? Vielleicht: “Creation of Apps”?)
Eye tracking analyses with TabletPCs and Smartphones.

Within the last two years the growth of the smart phone and tablet market has extensively proliferated. We will present two studies where we combined classical usability measurements e.g. thinking aloud, with direct action related measurement like eye tracking. Data reveal a significant advantage of the eye tracking data to detect mire subtle but cutting edge advantages. (cutting edge advantages of products over others/ of apps over others/ zwei mal advantage, kann man eins anders nennen?)

At the end of second quarter 2010 the apple iPad has gained a 95 percent share sales of tablet PC. As a main reason for the breakthrough of the iPad we consider its outstanding multi-touch display which had not been available for previous tablet PCs. Running the same operating system as the earlier iPod or iPhone, one core component comes into awareness of the user: applets. Ongoing debates about the iPad even amplify its popularity.
To gauge user experience with the iPad and scientifically approach an understanding of how people deal with the TabletPC, we tested 32 users in three countries: Germany, UK and Japan. Target domains were social media (Facebook) as well as German and English eJournals, such as the magazine “Iconist” (announced as the first iPad-only magazine).
Scope of our study was to gather explicit user statements (survey questions plus in-depth interviews) based on conventional usability methods combined with implicit user behavior extracted from eye tracking analysis. Results of the study give ample evidence for handling turning invisible mainly based on the touch interaction. Buttons and keys for navigation eventually disappear and after getting used to “the new style”, users more easily handle the tested applications.
This goes in line with the development in mobile industry, most strongly pronounced in Asian countries (e.g., Korea) where almost all leading mobile devices contain an inherent touch-only functionality.
The data show that classical usability measurements e.g. sole thinking aloud is very limited and cannot detect the subtle differences in invisible interaction design. Nevertheless, this subtle strength in guiding the users attention is of the utmost importance for explaining the success or failure of a product. So eye tracking could help to stay an important 100 ms ahead of the crowd.