Abstract
An eye tracker was utilized to examine decision-making processes of experts and novices during an internet search task. Twenty experienced homebuyers and twenty-five undergraduate students viewed homes on a simulated real estate website. Several of the homes included physical properties that had the potential to negatively impact individual perceptions. These negative externalities were either easy to change (Level 1) or extremely difficult to change (Level 2). Each house image was divided into 6 separate “interest areas” in order to evaluate where participants spent the greatest amount of time during the visual search task. Dwell times and number of fixations were analyzed. Results revealed that experienced homebuyers demonstrated a more direct and refined visual search process than novice student participants. Experts had longer dwell times, and a greater number of fixations with fewer saccades in very specific regions of an image. Experienced homebuyers reacted to homes with a Level 1 or Level 2 negative externality present differently from novice students. It was found that the house or image being seen did temper this reaction. These results demonstrate important considerations when designing user-friendly web interfaces for users with varying levels of task experience.
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