Challenges in setting up a new Eye Tracking study

Disclaimer: The challenges discussed in this blog are when the Eye Tracking study is done with the help of glasses.

Eye Tracking study is about knowing a person’s gaze behavior in regards to the real world environment consumer. The technology is well known in the retail market research, where companies are eager to find out the insights of consumer behavior in accordance with their purchasing attributes.

While the study is essential for understanding the market, there are some challenges associated with setting up of Eye Tracking study. Some of them are highlighted in this article.

1. Managing the logistics of a real-world study

While undergoing an Eye Tracking study the foremost challenge faced is how to proceed with the setting up of a real-world environment. The available options are either to go to the already existing supermarkets and conduct the study over there or to set up a lab where a real-world environment of products and shelves has to be created or to outsource this to agencies having a lab of their own.

The first option saves the cost of setting up a lab, the controlled environment, and the desired results are hard to achieve. There can be a case where the study has to be spanned for weeks. In that case, the supermarket may not be the most viable option. Given the fact that it is having a footfall of thousands of consumers, there is a high chance where the products of interest on a particular shelf may get rearranged or might get sold. In such cases, there will be issues in getting the accurate desired results of the study.

However, if one goes for setting up a lab, or to outsource the same to any agency, the cost involved will be too high which in result will increase the overall expenditure of the study.

2. Recruiting respondents

Certain Eye Tracking studies are target based, where the product of interest has to be studied on a particular age or geography based respondents. Sometimes it creates a hindrance in finding the right target audience in order to achieve desired results properly.

There might be cases where a study involves senior age respondents. In this scenario sometimes it is time-consuming to find the right set of the respondents. This creates a time lag in the completion of the study.

3. Manual coding process in Eye Tracking

Conducting Eye Tracking studies involves too much of time devotion to the manual coding process. The output has to be tagged by the manual coders in accordance with the gaze coordinates. This is a cumbersome task involving too much turnaround time and workforce. This sometimes may result in missing out the deadlines of the study.

Another skepticism that arises with manual coding is the accuracy of the study. Often, given the nature of the task, there is a good possibility of errors.

In such cases, SmartGaze comes to the rescue. Karna’s SmartGaze eliminates the tedious task of coding and automates the process without hindering the accuracy of the study. With SmartGaze the turnaround time is reduced significantly, thus making the whole process highly scalable, reliable and fast. SmartGaze requires only the gaze data of an eye tracking device. With automated coding, the results are achieved without any tedious manual process. As the whole process is automated with the help of AI technology the chances of error becomes minimal thereby increasing the accuracy of the project which is always in question with the manual coding.

4. Cost of Eye Tracking studies

To carry out any study or test, one factor which plays an indispensable role is the expenditure associated with it. Eye Tracking study being so complex in itself entails significant cost to the study. It is the involvement of various elements in the study that makes it costly.

Few elements that contribute to the cost structure of any study are.

• The Eye Tracking device used in the study.
• The cost incurred in purchasing the license of the software.
• Recruiting the respondents.
• Setting up the study environment. This may be lab-based or any real-world environment.
• The cost incurred for the manual workforce to analyze and code the data.

5. Timeline of the study

There may be times when certain projects require the study to be carried out at very short notice. This may be due to the urgent demand from the client side. In such cases, many constraints come to the picture. For example- the activity of coding, setting up a lab, etc. This also creates a block in the effectiveness of the study due to the shortage of time. The respondents may not be given too much freedom of their own.

They might be asked to not move freely and gaze at a certain direction so that not much of a manual task in plotting the gaze coordinates are required. Such artificial constraints often lead to the ineffectiveness of the study and thereby not serving its full purpose.

SmartGaze allows overcoming such hindrances. When you know that the whole process is to be automation derived, you can get the desired results in the stipulated time frame without compromising on the minute but important factors. Since SmartGaze uses AI technology, the element of manual coding is eliminated, thus creating a seamless experience of the real world in the study.

All the above-mentioned elements make it a challenging task to carry out the eye tracking study. Karna’s state-of-the-art tool, SmartGaze, can help in reducing the cost of the study by providing automated research methods. The AI technique helps in reducing the manual workforce cost. SmartGaze is the most cost-effective solution in the market. Unlike other coding software that asks for a subscription/license fee, the SmartGaze coding solution is based on a pay-as-you-use model which saves a significant amount of capital.

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