Analysing Visual Behaviour in Engineering Design by Eye Tracking Experiments

In the past few years several experiments in cognitive science, human-computer interaction and marketing research impressively showed that eye tracking is a powerful research method to gain deeper insights in human behaviour. However, until now in engineering design research only a small number of eye tracking experiments have been conducted. But even these experiments indicate that eye tracking technology can lead to highly important research results. This paper introduces four different fields, where eye tracking experiments can support engineering design research in order to better understand human behaviour in the context of (1) product representations, (2) engineering design expertise, (3) design creativity and (4) product application. The paper especially focuses on the first aspect by presenting eye tracking experiments, in which the scan path of several test persons analysing a technical drawing is recorded and evaluated in order to identify patterns in their visual behaviour. Based on the results, it finally is discussed how visual behaviour can be purposefully described in design research and how the engineering designer can be effectively supported in design practice.