I&T Solution

Heathrow Airport partnered with Tobii in order to answer their critical wayfinding questions. To understand their customer’s perspective when navigating Terminal 5, the research team decided to use Tobii’s wearable eye tracker Tobii Pro Glasses 3. These eye tracking glasses tracked passengers’ gaze as they completed one of the 3 core journeys within the terminal. Whether they were finding their gate, looking for the elevators, or searching for the correct lane at passport control, their gaze was tracked and stored by the glasses.

At the airport, passengers were recruited to participate in the study. 108 participants had their attention tracked while covering different parts of the passenger journey, whether departing, arriving, or connecting. The research team followed the participants while viewing their gaze in real-time, making notes that would then be used to conduct a follow-up depth interview centered around key moments.

Working together, the project team was able to locate key moments of decision or hesitation. These moments generally occurred at transitional points on their journey: entering a large hall, stepping off an escalator, or encountering several exit options and potential paths. Attention data in these few seconds were crucial to understanding what was causing confusion, what signage helped resolve the hesitation, and whether informative signage was going unnoticed. It also helped the researchers see where oversaturation of signage was causing high cognitive load and additional confusion.

Tobii Pro Glasses 3 used at Heathrow airport

Physical eye tracking is always only half the story. Equipped with participants’ recordings, the project team showed passengers their movements and gaze patterns after the fact. Attention is implicit and often subconscious, but when participants are able to visualise how their attention moves, they have the opportunity to process the reasoning behind it. By interviewing participants after the study, using recordings of their gaze, it was possible to gather rich qualitative insights that gave meaning to the eye tracking data.

In this eye tracking study, the project team got a fresh perspective on how passengers navigate toward their outward transport option. Having had previous trouble directing passengers to the correct elevators, the Heathrow team used eye tracking to analyse the visibility of the signage. Seeing how participants struggled with the information presented, the Heathrow team is now well-equipped to optimise signage and prevent frustrating endings to long journeys!

Going forward - Optimising other terminals

Heathrow is constantly focused on improving the user experience at its airport. That’s why the team are already looking forward to analysing the other terminals. Each terminal at Heathrow is different, with unique journeys and unforeseen blockers and bottlenecks. The team at Heathrow is now set up to conduct more eye tracking studies and improve the passenger experience for the better.