What Do Users Actually Look At?

Recently, I have been exploring eye tracking and its potential in Automotive UX.

To better understand the basics, I created an eye-tracking visualisation with one of my dashboard designs. Even as a simulation, this exercise offered new perspectives on interface design and evaluation.

As designers, we usually think about what information we want to display. Eye tracking changes the focus to a more interesting question: What do users actually look at?

While exploring the gaze patterns, I found myself thinking about visual hierarchy, glanceability, and attention allocation. In an automotive context, the goal isn't necessarily to attract more attention. In many cases, the best interface may be the one that communicates critical information with the fewest and shortest glances possible.

One of the most interesting realizations for me was that eye tracking can tell us where users look, how long they look, and the sequence in which they scan information. But it doesn't tell us whether they understood what they saw, trusted the system, or made the right decision. That's where usability testing, interviews, driver monitoring, and broader human factors research become equally important.

This exploration also made me think about how visual attention changes with context. During a charging state, users may be more willing to explore secondary information such as weather, notifications, and media. During an active driving state, attention naturally shifts toward navigation, speed, and driving-critical information.

This is still an early exploration, but I'm excited to continue developing the concept and documenting the process as a more detailed Automotive UX case study in my portfolio.