Today I came across and interesting and well produced video of the Attention Tool using eye tracking by iMotions.

Their introduction, to me, is so true:

If we all know that buying desicions are based on emotions and not on rational processes, why then are we still asking consumers for their rational opinion in focus groups, online panels and interviews.

While supporting their claim of importance of emotions for market research, our approach at SusaGroup is slightly different. In this post I will compare some methods and explain pro’s and con’s of the different approaches.

As a solution iMotions present the attention tool. This is eye tracking software which interprets the movement of eye as an expression of brain function. They claim to be the only tool in the industry that can deliver the full range of eye tracking metrics, reading metrics and emotion metrics in a non-obtrusive way. Furthermore they recommend to use the tool in a testing facility.

Referring back to research by Dr. Pieter Desmet in his article on Measuring Emotions, he concludes:

Emotions are best treated as a multifaceted phenomenon consisting of the following components:

• behavioural reactions (e.g. approaching),
• expressive reactions (e.g. smiling),
• physiological reactions (e.g. heart pounding),
• and subjective feelings (e.g. feeling amused).

Each instrument that is claimed to measure emotions in fact measures one of these components.

Building on that conclusion one can question whether the attention tool does in fact measure emotions. Without knowing the details behind their tool, I don’t believe one can measure emotions just by tracking an eye. However, a webcam in a lab-setting can provide very interesting data. The face recognition tool Facereader by Noldus for example analyses facial expressions. One of the downsides is that it can only measure basic emotions.

Furthermore a disadvantage measurement tools that rely on a lab setting is that we are not tapping in to a real authentic experience in someone’s real life. Wouldn’t you experience the same product differently in a clean lab or just at home using it like you would really use it?

In their video, iMotions also asks the question:

Why do we still rely on consumers’ subjective input on innovative products?

Again referring to the paper of Pieter Desmet, he writes: “People are expert at interpreting emotional expressions.”.

Therefore, in my view the answer is “Yes we do, but with the right tools”.

At SusaGroup we strongly believe in non-verbal self report methods. In this way we do not rely on words (non-verbal), but do engage the person because he or she is very capable of expressing him/herself. However, none of the methods is perfect.

Combining several methods can bring us to even more powerful and reliable tools. For example, using eye-tracking as a trigger to question someone about his/her feelings using a non-verbal scale like PrEmo. An interesting thought. Let’s do some R&D on how we can use eye-tracking in a home setting using just a simple webcam.

Check out the entire iMotions video below.

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