Cognitive Strategies and Eye Movements for Searching Hierarchical Computer Displays

This research investigates the cognitive strategies and eye movements that people use to search for a known item in a hierarchical computer display. Computational cognitive models were built to simulate the visual-perceptual and oculomotor processing required to search hierarchical and nonhierarchical displays. Eye movement data were collected and compared on over a dozen measures with the a priori predictions of the models. Though it is well accepted that hierarchical layouts are easier to search than nonhierarchical layouts, the underlying cognitive basis for this design heuristic has not yet been established. This work combines cognitive modeling and eye tracking to explain this and numerous other visual design guidelines. This research also demonstrates the power of cognitive modeling for predicting, explaining, and interpreting eye movement data, and how to use eye tracking data to confirm and disconfirm modeling details. Categories and subject descriptors H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: User Interfaces-- Evaluation/methodology, eye tracking, graphical user interfaces (GUI), screen design, theory and methods; H.1.2 [Models and Principles]: User/Machin