Guiding Visual Attention on 2D Screens: Effects of Gaze Cues from Avatars and Humans

Abstract

Guiding visual attention to specific parts of an interface is essential. One powerful tool for guiding attention is gaze cues, that direct visual attention in the same direction as a presented gaze. In this paper, we explored how to direct users' visual attention on 2D screens using gaze cues from avatars and humans. For this, we conducted a lab experiment (N = 30) based on three independent variables: (1) stimulus shown either as avatars or human faces, (2) target direction with a target appearing left or right from a stimulus, and (3) gaze validity indicating whether a stimulus' gaze was directed towards a target (valid gaze) or not (invalid gaze). Our results show that participants' total and average fixation on a target lasted longer in the presence of the human image than the avatar stimulus when a target appeared on the right side and when a stimulus' gaze was towards the target. Moreover, participants' average fixation was longer on the human than avatar stimulus gazing in the opposite direction from a target than towards it.