2024 Volume 20 Issue 1 Pages 25-33
This study investigates whether an eye-tracking device can capture the construction of mental models. It also seeks to understand the causes that impede the construction of mental models. Subjects visited the same web page five times with a break in between. The subjects wore eye-tracking device, and we analyzed their gaze data. The results showed that all subjects had constructed a mental model by the second or third session. The causes that inhibited mental model building were consistent with the usability problems we had identified in the heuristic evaluation prior to the experiment. We also were able to draw a theory that identifies areas that are difficult to use even when mental models are constructed.
