Study Focus: AR + Eye Tracking = Better Online Shopping?
The research set out to discover how AR features on an eyewear e-commerce site impact how users feel, behave, and make buying decisions. The big questions were:
Does AR catch and keep users' attention?
How do people emotionally react to trying AR features?
What do they think about the overall experience?
To find answers, the researchers used RealEye webcam-based eye-tracking and facial expression analysis tools - right from participants' browsers.
The Method: Small Group, Big Insights
The team invited 10 people (who had never used AR in e-commerce before) to try an AR glasses-fitting feature on a real website. While users explored the AR function, RealEye captured:
Where they looked (fixation points, heat maps)
How long they looked (first fixation and average durations)
What they felt (emotions like surprise and happiness via facial expressions)
Afterwards, participants took part in interviews to describe their experiences in their own words.
What RealEye Revealed:
AR grabs attention-fast: Users fixated on AR elements within less than half a second (on average), showing the feature is eye-catching and intuitive.
Engagement is high: Users spent about 15.6 seconds interacting with AR, with dozens of fixations -especially on the try-on area and AR button.
Emotionally powerful: Many users showed surprise and happiness. One participant even smiled during the AR try-on, which the system picked up instantly.
Positive vibes all around: Interview feedback highlighted that users found the AR experience fun, useful, and saw the brand as modern and trustworthy.
Overview Drawing for Atasun.com.tr Homepage and Areas of Interest (letf) and Size of AOI, Time Spent, Fixation Values (right)
💡 Why This Matters
This study highlights how RealEye helps brands understand not just what users do - but how they feel doing it.
Eye tracking shows what draws attention and what gets ignored.
Facial expression analysis reveals emotional impact without needing surveys.
Together with interviews, RealEye supports deeper UX insights and better design decisions.
And the best part? All of this was done remotely, using just a webcam and browser.
🛍️ The Takeaway
Augmented Reality isn’t just a gimmick - it creates real emotional engagement and boosts perceived brand quality. But to make it truly work, you need to measure the invisible: attention and emotion.
With RealEye, researchers and businesses can go beyond clicks and scrolls to understand what users see and feel, in real time.
You can run a similar study!
Follow the steps below to start your own experiment with RealEye:
