Exploring Visual Search and Browsing Strategies on Web Pages Using the Eye-tracking

This study investigates the characteristics of visual search and browsing,and analyzes the differences of those strategies on Web pages using the eye tracking.When participants search on Web pages,the peripheral area is significantly higher than the central area on fixation duration and fixation count;when participants brows information on Web pages,there is no significant difference between the peripheral area and the central area on fixation duration and fixation count.Visual search is significantly larger than browsing on the average pupil diameter,which shows that the mental load on visual search is significantly greater than that on browsing.Results show that the visual search strategy pays more attention to the peripheral area than the central area;however,the visual browsing strategy freely run their eyes over the peripheral area and the central area in equality.The differences between the visual search and the browsing strategies are mainly due to the goal-driven and the mental load.