Predicting webpage aesthetics with heatmap entropy

Abstract

This paper introduces a descriptive global index for eye-tracking data called heatmap entropy, or visual attention entropy (VAE), and discerns its predictive value for webpage aesthetics. VAE represents the chaos, or uncertainty, in the allocation of visual attention. In the experiment, we tracked and recorded 30 observers' initial landings on 40 web pages displayed for 3 seconds each. The results show that the VAE and aesthetic ratings of the web pages are negatively correlated ($r = -0.54\comma\; \ P \lt 0.001$r=−0.54, P