Research on the correlation mechanism between eye-tracking data and aesthetic ratings in product aesthetic evaluation

Abstract

It is an open question whether the results of human evaluations of product aesthetics can be reasonably predicted from eye-tracking data. In this paper, we investigate the correlation mechanism between eye-tracking data and product aesthetic ratings so that the eye-tracking data can form a scientific reference in product aesthetic evaluation to better guide product design. It is proven that the four chosen eye-tracking indices, including total fixation duration, fixation count, visit count and total visit duration, are significantly correlated with product aesthetic ratings, and it is possible to achieve objective quantification of product aesthetics. The correlation between eye-tracking data and product aesthetic ratings is analysed, and an evaluation model of the product aesthetic correlation mechanism is proposed based on eye-tracking data. Experimental results demonstrate that product aesthetic evaluation is not mysterious or unique and can be reasonably described through data analysis and mathematical algorithms. If the correlation mechanism between eye-tracking data and product aesthetics is well established, the scientific evaluation of product aesthetics can be easily achieved.

KEYWORDS:

• Eye-tracking
• product aesthetics
• design evaluation
• design aesthetics
• product design

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Shandong University for providing us with an excellent experimental platform and to all the subjects who participated in the experiments of this study. In addition, we would like to thank the editors, reviewers, and publication staff for their efforts on this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the author [Yong Wang], upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the [Shandong University Pedagogy Reform Research Project] under Grant [number 2020Y218].