Using Eye Tracking to Understand the Fidelity Effect when Evaluating Low-Fidelity Prototypes with Children

Abstract

This study used eye tracking glasses to understand how children explore low-fidelity paper prototypes in the context of user experience studies. Twenty seven children aged between 9 and 11 participated in the study examining either a colour or black and white prototype of a mobile game. The research question being explored was whether the aesthetic refinement, either wireframe or high-resolution colour images, would affect children’s self-report and if so what could be learned from knowing where children looked when exploring the prototypes. The results showed that the aesthetic refinement had little influence over the children’s overall ratings of the game. The eye tracking data demonstrated that most of the children focused on both the visuals and text on the pages of the prototype. However, there were a higher number of fixations recorded in the wireframe prototype suggesting this may have been more cognitively demanding. This paper contributes to understanding of fidelity effects when evaluating low-fidelity prototypes and shows how eye tracking technology can help inform HCI methodologies.