Where you Look Depends on What you are Willing to Afford: Eye Tracking in Menus

Abstract

The first impression that diners receive from a food and beverage establishment is via its menu, which conveys more information than just price and food offerings. Despite evidence that suggests possible gaze patterns across restaurant menus, it remains largely unknown how different consumers process this information across different types of menus. Hence, the present study aims to examine consumer visual patterns across traditional Chinese menus compared with regular menus in relation to their price-consciousness, using eye-tracking methodology. Contrary to previous studies that suggest general patterns of scanpaths in reading menus, the findings of the current study note that “price-conscious” consumers exhibit different gaze patterns. Additionally, the menu layout appears to play a role in consumer processing of menu-related data as well. Thus, it is important that restauranteurs define their target consumers and design their menus accordingly.