An Eye-Tracking Analysis of a Restaurant Menu

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of color on eye movements while viewing a restaurant menu. Heat maps suggest that participants tended to view the middle and upper-left parts of the menu the most, regardless of color upon first exposure. Gaze plots showing the order of fixations indicated that color may have impacted initial eye movements in the first 10 seconds. Participants tended to view the center of the menu first in the color condition and the top left portion of the menu first in the non-color version. These results may be useful when designing restaurant menus and understanding the role color may have when attracting users' gaze.