Value Measurement vs. Eye Tracking

Eye tracking is the best available measure of what an audience actually looked at, and for questions about visibility and search order there's no real substitute. But attention is not preference. People look longest at what confuses or threatens them, and in a purchase study there was no correlation between how much someone valued a product and how long they looked at it. Eye tracking tells you something was seen. It cannot tell you whether it mattered.

What is eye tracking?

Eye tracking is a neuromarketing technique designed to measure consumer attention. This methodology uses one or more cameras to track how a participant’s eyes move when interacting with some stimulus or experience (e.g., a website, advertisement, show, game, shopping trip).

The tools used in eye tracking research can be computer mounted, face mounted (on glasses that participants wear), or web based.

Eye tracking data generally takes a bit of time to process, as it requires identifying specific areas of interest (AOIs) and aggregating data from different consumers. Individuals who conduct eye tracking analysis generally complete some sort of training to become an expert in the process. This means that most eye tracking research is done by a specific vendor with expertise.

While eye tracking can be a reliable measure of attention (depending on the quality of the device used and other factors like calibration), attention alone does not predict what consumers will remember or their future behavior.

What is eye tracking genuinely good at?

Eye tracking output can help you identify answer several attention-related questions. For example, where does attention go first? How long does it takes for a certain element to capture attention? What is the typical gaze path? How long do consumers spend attending to different elements of an experience?

Face-mounted eye tracking glasses can produce measurements in a more flexible environment where a consumer needs to be able to navigate as they would naturally, like with a journey through a store.

Web-based eye tracking allows the research to scale as it taps into consumers' own webcams to capture measurements.

Some Value Measurement users combine eye tracking with our Value Score output for shopper studies and UX research.

Where does eye tracking fall short for measuring experiences?

While attention is an important element to understand in content creation, it is only a small part of the story. Eye tracking will not tell you whether or not those elements of attention have a positive or negative impact on the consumer or if their brain is getting enough value from an experience that it will drive future behavior or recall which is why packages that attract the most attention are not necessarily the ones people like.

Eye tracking requires a trained professional to interpret the data and send you the results, which can take weeks.

Computer-mounted eye tracking cameras require collecting data in person, preventing this from being a truly scalable option.

Computer-mounted eye tracking cameras need good lighting and require limiting movements, creating a generally unnatural experience.

All eye tracking technologies require an initial calibration, and often necessitate constant recalibration to ensure the data is accurate and useable. Accuracy drifts measurably over a single session, and varies with participant physiology."

Face-mounted eye tracking glasses can be bulky and attract unwanted attention, making the experience less natural for the consumer.

Due to the challenges of using individual webcams, a good portion of webcam captured eye tracking data must be thrown out due to factors that can affect data quality such as lighting, participant movement, and poor internet connectivity. This data loss requires companies to over-recruit, meaning you pay for data you can't use.

Attention is pulled by threat as readily as by interest. Fear-relevant images are detected faster than pleasant ones, and attention is automatically drawn toward undesirable information against the viewer's intent. A long fixation can mean someone couldn't look away from something they disliked.

Attention that lands doesn't always convert. In a shelf study, gaining in-store attention was "not always sufficient to drive sales" — top and middle shelf positions won more attention than low shelf, but only top-shelf carried through to brand evaluation.

In field conditions, the data degrades badly. Ordinary behavior — talking, facial expressions — produced 0.8° to 3.1° of gaze error on head-worn trackers, rising to 15–26° when the headset shifted, with 30% data loss on one system. At those magnitudes, shelf-level attribution stops being reliable.

It did not predict market outcomes. When six methods were benchmarked against real advertising elasticities, eye tracking not only failed to add predictive value — it made the model worse (adjusted R² change −7.3%).

How Value Measurement is Different

Value Measurement measures attention and emotional resonance in real-time, as experiences unfold. This helps you to identify which moments are most impactful, driving value and future action...not just what they looked at.

By combining Value Measurement with eye tracking, you get a data set that not only shows what captures your audience's attention but also reveals the depth of their connection to that content.

Value Measurement instantly provides real-time results on a graphic dashboard that aligns your data to specific content or agenda points. Second-by-second, you understand the value people get out of your content or experience.

Use Value Measurement on it's own to understand your content's connection to your audience in real-time or combine with eye tracking for a robust understanding of how your content will drive action.

Eye tracking answers "was it seen." Value Measurement answers "did it matter." They're different questions, and the second is the one that predicts behavior.

Eye-opening fact for brain nerds

The six muscles in each of your eyes move faster than any other muscles in your body.

(Gives a whole new meaning to the idea of "give it a quick look"...)

Is Eye Tracking a Value Measurement?

No — and unlike the other methods here, it isn't trying to be. Eye tracking measures where attention goes, which is a necessary condition for an experience to land and a genuinely useful one to know. It just isn't sufficient. That's why some of our users run both.

Core Value Measurement Features

Eye Tracking

Value

NEUROLOGIC

OUTCOME-BASED

IN THE MOMENT

EVERYWHERE

COMPARABLE

MULTIDIMENSIONAL

Other Factors

Eye Tracking

Value

NO OBSERVATION EFFECT

NO CUSTOM HARDWARE

SCALABLE

NO SPECIAL TRAINING REQUIRED

Feels like magic, because it is good science

Using everyday wearable devices, we can infer the simultaneous release of oxytocin and dopamine throughout the day.

Real-time measure

World anywhere with the devices people already wear.

Proven in science

25 years of peer-reviewed science back up our confidence

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Join the Value Measurement Movement

What are you waiting for? Value Measurement lets you identify what people authentically care about and will act on, moment-by-moment, removing all bias from the equation. Download our Value Measurement Manifesto and join the movement today!

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