Since there are no official readings yet I thought I would respond to a random article and add my own thoughts on the topic: heatmapping and eyetracking.

The idea of eyemapping and heatmapping are connected to the aesthetic principles of space described by Gretchen Barbatsis as linking and two dimensionality (see the article Hypermediated Telepresence: Sensemaking Aesthetics of the Newest Communication Art.)

Since web content is structured inside a flat reading frame with static links waiting to be enacted (unlike TV or viewed action) the idea of heatmapping and eyetracking is that to understand good web design it is important to understand surface as flat - similar to TV - and not space.

To understand heatmapping and eyetracking look at this short film and this interesting page. For a more indepth review of the technologies go to eyetools, the company who is leading the way for these technologies.

Both tools were developed under a principle where flatness and linking are king and reading or clicking are the most important to user experience. The assessment of clicking is based on author influence and not user influence. There is a lot of research on eyetracking and heatmapping all based on working to understand the medium as a controlled 2D experience.

To get a better grasp of either measurement technology look at Clockwork Orange, where the viewing of film is represented as passive and static. This experience is a contrast to the digital screen space where there is a user (not a viewer) and to understand what is viewed (or better used) is more about encoding what is seen from outside the user than the internal experience of the viewer. In this scenerio the implements of torture are different but similar.

This is not to say that eyetracking or heatmapping are unuseful to understand usability, as Jakob Nielsen may attest. The technology is useful but only works to understand why users are not doing what the desinger wants them to do and this may or may be the objective depending on the experience that the author desires. If you want a user to click on product information, then eyetracking or heatmapping may be the best way to find out why they are not clicking where they are supposed to. But as the following dialogue demonstrates, users may not be clicking simply because they cannot see the link.

TODD: We have a client right now who’s undergoing a redesign. They can’t figure out for the life of them why their promos for signing up new customers aren’t working.

JARED: Maybe it’s because it’s something nobody wants? If so, no amount of eye tracking will help.

If you are looking for a more indepth discourse on eyetracking, heatmapping and hypermedia read the whole article where I pulled this dialogue.

I would say that what this snippet suggests is that Barbatsis is correct; there is more to the hypermediated experience than 2D space. Hypermedia allows users to choose links and enact content nodes through linking. Offering one link at the center of a webpage (like my example) while being prime web real estate will amount to nothing if that link takes the user to a node they are not interested in.

The limitations and requirements of hypermedia are only as good as their potential. Eyetracking and heatmapping would be at loss to explain the success of a site like The Million Dollar Homepage. But then as Barbatsis clarifies, the point is in the potential.