Which types of content do people spend the most time viewing on mobile apps? Should publishers present images first? How much does load time impact engagement?

Plastic Mobile recently set out to answer those sorts of questions by examining how consumers interact with the mobile commerce applications of Best Buy, Hyatt, and Pizza Pizza.

The attentional and emotional activity of 30 paid participants (14 men, 16 women) was measured with EEG neuro-headsets and eye-tracking glasses in the study. The researchers observed as the users downloaded and opened the three apps, browsed products and services, went to check out, and made purchases by entering personal information.

Below, key findings from the report.

What People Concentrate On

Participants focused their attention on images and prices during the product selection stage for all three apps. Moreover, the bigger the image was, the more focus was observed:

  • For the Best Buy app, participants didn't read the product descriptions, even though they took up half of the screen real-estate. Instead, consumers focused their attention on the images and prices. The average time spent on the selection page was 22.8 seconds.
  • Participants spent 38.0 seconds on average on the Hyatt app selection page. Again, users skipped the product information (hotel descriptions) and focused on the images and the prices.
  • Participants spent 35.2 seconds on the selection page of the Pizza Pizza app, concentrating their visual focus on pizza images, size selection, and prices.

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Eye-Tracking Study: How Consumers Use Mobile Apps

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Ayaz Nanji

Ayaz Nanji is a writer, editor, and a content strategist. He is a co-founder of ICW Media and a research writer for MarketingProfs. He has worked for Google/YouTube, the Travel Channel, and the New York Times.

LinkedIn: Ayaz Nanji

Twitter: @ayaznanji