Development of a methodology for testing a mobile application based on eye-tracking technology

A mobile phone is used every day for various tasks, for example, for mobile communication, for communicating on social networks, for obtaining information from the Internet, as well as for mobile applications. A smartphone is a small device that contains a lot of information that needs to be processed and analyzed in order for the user to achieve the goal. From a design point of view, to evaluate a mobile application, this work identified 4 factors influencing the perception of information in a mobile application: color scheme, compositional solution, font and the number of letters in control words. An experiment was developed that was carried out using eye-tracking technology in a special software module. It includes 72 stimuli and 1 set task that participants in the experiment must solve. The experiment demonstrated that its participants solved the problem fastest in blue-orange and white-black color combinations of stimulus material, and also the fastest in solving problems with large elements of the compositional solution. An interesting observation is that long words were perceived by the subjects faster than short ones. This study showed that the developed methodology can be used for testing mobile applications. The testing was successful, recommendations were identified that can help in developing a mobile application: light and dark themes in which different fonts will be displayed: light theme – sans-serif font, dark theme – serif font; mobile application elements in black and white and blue and orange color combinations; long words in mobile application elements and large square tiles located on the screens of the mobile application. The technique showed results that require additional, more in-depth research.

Mobile application, Eye-tracking technology, Fixations, Saccade, Central vision, Peripheral vision, Color solution, Compositional solution, Font, Control words