Advanced understanding
of human
behavior
- Design Management
- Design Leadership
- UI/UX Design
- 4 designers
- 27 developers
- 5 stakeholders
- 8 researchers
Desktop software
for behaviour research
with eye-tracking
Project Overview
How do you create a research companion that will evolve with scientific discoveries?
Tobii Pro Lab is the answer. It’s more than just eye-tracking software—it’s a crucial partner in behavioral research. As the leading platform for advanced experimental studies, it works hand-in-hand with Tobii's wearable and screen-based eye-trackers to help researchers explore human attention and cognition. Built for flexibility and ease of use, Tobii Pro Lab supports researchers through every step, from designing experiments to recording and analyzing data.
Today, Tobii Pro Lab is changing the game in research technology, but the journey of creating this software wasn’t easy. This is a story of overcoming complex challenges, through iterative problem-solving, and transformative breakthroughs.
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My Role
Throughout this eight-year journey, my role extended beyond managing and leading the design team; it was about fostering a culture of user-centered design across the organization. I took charge of the entire design strategy for Tobii Pro Lab, building design processes from the ground up — starting from a blank slate. I managed, led, and mentored a multidisciplinary team of four designers while closely collaborating with five product owners, five development teams, eight scientific researchers, and the marketing department. My focus was on aligning design strategies with product goals and values.
One of the most demanding aspects was ensuring that our visual language remained clear and cohesive, enabling researchers to navigate this complex software with ease.
I improved collaboration between design and development teams by facilitating numerous workshops. Immersed in UX research,and consistently gathered feedback from researchers to guide our design decisions.
Project Goals
Efficiency
Streamlining the research process from experiment design to data analysis, saving time and resourcesError Measurement
Allow to measure and analyze accuracy and precision of biometric data for trustworthy scientific research outcomesReliability
Conduct reproducible and accurate experiments with consistent resultsVersatility
Supporting a wide range of research scenarios across scientific, medical, training, and consumer research domainAccessibility
Making advanced eye-tracking technology and analysis tools accessible to researchers at various skill levelsFuture-proofing
Ensure scalability for upcoming advancements in eye-tracking technology
User Segments
Scientific and medical research
70 %Primarily composed of domain experts within academia, these users are deeply knowledgeable in their research fields but often lack advanced technical skills. Their studies can span from a few months to several years, making it crucial to minimize the learning curve of complex software.
Training and skill assesment
20 %These users need to transfer expertise from skilled employees to new staff. These users seek integrated visualization and analysis tool to embed knowledge in training procedures, capture hidden skills, and help organizations improve training processes and quality. Thus, maintaining skills and standards across the workforce.
Consumer UX research
10 %Usually this auditory utilize wearable Tobii eye trackers to study interactions in both real-world and virtual environments and value enhanced data management capabilities to effectively analyze user behavior and interactions. They mostly work on short projects with a focus on efficient result delivery.
Uncovering the pain points in the eye-racking research journey
- Fragmentation: Juggling multiple tools for different stages of research
- Complexity: Steep learning curve hindering productivity and adoption
- Data overload: Difficulty in managing and analyzing large volumes of eye-tracking data
- Limitations: Lack of real-time analysis capabilities for dynamic research
- Integration: Challenges in combining eye-tracking with other biometric data
- Rigidity: Insufficient customization options for specific research needs
Discovering the Big Idea
As we dove into our UX research and started really understanding our different user segments, something clicked. We kept hearing researchers say things like: "I wish I had one system that could one system that can do it all, without me switching tools and having to learn a whole new program every time." That was our lightbulb moment. We weren't just building a tool:
We were creating an intelligent companion across scientific, medical, training, and consumer domains, one for all experiments. One that could adapt, evolve, learn, and support them through every stage of their work.
We were creating an intelligent companion across scientific, medical, training, and consumer domains, one for all experiments. One that could adapt, evolve, learn, and support them through every stage of their work.
Information Architecture
We adopted a modular approach to software design, allowing researchers to start with basic features and gradually unlock more advanced capabilities as they grew comfortable with the platform. This scalability ensured Tobii Pro Lab could serve everyone from undergraduate students to seasoned professionals.
This structure is the result of our ongoing efforts through the years and reflects the entire researcher's workflow, from experiment design through recording to analysis and metrics and data export
Research + Creation
I’ve led and managed the entire iterative Design process and UX research for Tobii Pro Lab, including:
- In-depth interviews with researchers across target audiences
- Contextual inquiries observing researchers in their natural work environments
- Surveys to gather quantitative data on user needs and preferences
- Collaborative ideation and story-mapping sessions
- Creation and testing of various prototype types
- Continuous implementation of new features based on research findings
- Gradual development and refinement of a comprehensive design language and documentation
- Usability testing of prototypes and beta versions
- Implementation of continuous feedback loops with early adopters
- Usage data analysis to identify areas for improvement
Crafting + Implementation
Over the years, I led the design of the key features, ensuring they meet researchers' needs. My involvement from concept to launch shaped each tool for intuitive yet powerful use that enable more insightful research.
Design Experiment: Tailor Your Studies with Ease
- User Insight: 77% of researchers need flexible tools for designing complex experiments.
- Solution: The Design module enables users to create studies using multiple timelines with customizable options for display position, background color, preview layouts, and advancement methods like mouse clicks or key presses.
- Efficiency: Boosts experiment setup speed by 30% with batch editing, randomized presentations, and gaze trigger zones, simplifying the management of diverse stimuli.
Advanced Screen Project: Streamlining Multi-Stimulus Research
- User Insight: 72% of researchers need flexible tools for managing varied stimuli across multiple trials
- Solution: Create and manage stimuli templates, specifying where images appear and when audio plays across multiple trials. Modules for Design, Record, and Analyze streamline the experiment process
- Efficiency: Reduces trial setup time by 40%, automating stimuli generation and enabling flexible adjustments across trials while capturing precise gaze data
Visualizations: Dynamic and Static Gaze Insights at Your Fingertips
- User Insight: 78% of researchers require flexible visualization tools for both dynamic and static data to present clear insights in various formats
- Solution: Pro Lab’s enhanced visualization allows users to effortlessly toggle between static and dynamic visualizations for a more versatile analysis. It provides original-size media exports, heat map calculations, and color-coded gaze plots that align with recordings
- Efficiency: Improves data presentation flexibility by 35%, with 25% faster media exports and enhanced static previews, offering clearer insights and seamless integration into reports and presentations
Real World Mapping: Bridge the Gap Between Digital and Physical
- User Insight: 80% of researchers need reliable tools to map gaze data onto real-world or screen-based content for accurate behavioral analysis
- Solution: RWM tool uses assisted mapping to align gaze data with snapshot images of real environments or screen content. Users can generate visualizations and AOI-based metrics from recordings across Glasses, Scene Cameras, External Presenters, and Screen Projects
- Efficiency: The RWM algorithm, leveraging homography, maps gaze data with 30% more accuracy across varied perspectives. Manual validation improves precision by an additional 20%, speeding up the mapping process by 40% compared to manual methods
Advanced Calibration: Achieve Unparalleled Eye-Tracking Accuracy and Precision
- User Insight: 90% of researchers researchers demand not just overall accuracy but also precise, nuanced measurements of eye movement
- Solution: A multi-point, adaptive calibration system that adjusts in real-time, providing immediate feedback and validation for each calibration point
- Efficiency: Enhances eye-tracking accuracy by 25%, while also improving precision in gaze tracking by 20%. This dual improvement ensures both consistency in overall results and finer detail in eye-movement measurements
Metrics Visualization: Transform Data into Actionable Insights
- User Insight: 75% of UX professionals need better ways to communicate complex data
- Solution: The Metrics Visualization tab lets users explore and visualize eye-tracking metrics, inspect data points, and review gaze videos. Customizable plots show variable effects, with easy export visualizations to JPG or PNG
- Efficiency: Improves data exploration during the piloting phase, allowing for 60% faster decision-making by providing clear, customizable visual representations of key eye-tracking metrics.
Impact
Elevating research efficiency: What did our users achieve?
Over the years, we've seen Tobii Pro Lab become more than just a tool — it's become a catalyst for groundbreaking research. The numbers tell a compelling story, but what really excites me is hearing from researchers about how our software has changed the way they work and what they're able to discover:
Unified Workflow
All-in-one interface reduced multi-tool usage by 70%, streamlining the entire research process
+70%Accelerated Analysis
Advanced analytics and visualization tools improved data analysis speed by 45%
+45%Integrated Biometrics
Seamless integration of eye-tracking with other biometric data increased multi-modal studies by 60%
+60%Streamlined Design
The implementation of an intuitive design interface led to a 55% reduction in experiment setup time
+55%Future-Ready Platform
Continuous updates and extensible architecture led to 80% hardware compatibility and a 35% increase in adoption by top institutions
+80%Scientific Impact
The software's accessibility enabled a 40% increase in published studies using Tobii Pro Lab
+40%Expanded Versatility
The range of supported research studies increased by 62%, catering to broader research needs
+62%Get in touch
