A study of customer perception of visual information in food stands through eye-tracking

Abstract

PurposeThe study selected five small-scale food operations as visual stimuli and eye-tracking experiment was conducted with 36 female participants in a laboratory setting. Heat maps were used to visualize viewers' visual attention on the storefronts. The eye-movement data were analyzed using one-way repeated ANOVA to identify a significant difference between stimuli in terms of average fixation duration, fixation counts and revisits. An independent t-test was also used to examine statistical difference among text and image in menu board. The significance cut-off of p-value was set to <0.05.Design/methodology/approachThe exteriors of food-service establishments are major business representation. However, few studies have been conducted to examine customers' visual processing toward small-scale restaurants. The present study accordingly aims to discover customers' different levels of attention to the frontage in food stands through eye tracking, which would be practical for future owners to plan their exterior shop design.FindingsThe findings can be summarized as follows: First, upper board shows the highest level of attention, suggesting an optimal location of menu board for grasping customers' attention. Second, customers also gaze the inside of a store along with the food on display, which are related with food hygiene and the perception. Third, textual information on menu boards tends to attract more visual attention than those of images. Overall, the current study indicates various customers' attention toward the location of menu boards as well as the type of visual information on menu board.Originality/valueThe results of this study make a new insight into customers' viewing behavior toward exteriors of food-service establishments. This study is one of the first attempts to explore how customers distribute visual attention to the exterior images of food stand by using eye-tracking technology. The findings of this research thus enrich the food-service literature and offer meaningful discoveries on customers' visual behaviors. For example, this study suggests that customers tend to be attracted to textual information on menu boards rather than graphical ones.

Consumer visual attention to food allergen information on restaurant menus: an eye-tracking study

“…it can be hard to identify), which forced the participants to fixate on the logo longer and to return to the logo more frequently. A recent study by Jeon et al (2021) concluded that textual information might be more noticeable if such information is already known by the consumer; this factor was not applicable in this case because the participants were viewing the menus for the very first time. Since food allergies can be life-threatening, some participants in this study said that they would not take the risk of relying on a false assumption about an icon.…”

“…Therefore, if restaurants were to identify food allergens with different colors on their menus, the font size should be reduced to avoid a competition effect, as recommended by the participants. Advisory statement at the bottom of the menu was scarcely noticed; changing the location of this statement, for example to the upper right or left side of the menu, may be helpful (Jeon et al. , 2021; Ma and Zhuang, 2021).…”

“…Therefore, if restaurants were to identify food allergens with different colors on their menus, the font size should be reduced to avoid a competition effect, as recommended by the participants. Advisory statement at the bottom of the menu was scarcely noticed; changing the location of this statement, for example to the upper right or left side of the menu, may be helpful (Jeon et al, 2021;Ma and Zhuang, 2021). The prototype, in the long run, may result in a supplementary menu design that communicates food allergen information clearly, which could contribute to informed and safe food choices for those with food hypersensitivities.…”

Eye-Tracking Dataset to Support the Research on Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Eye trackers are currently utilised in a plethora of applications. To name a few, applications of marketing (Boerman, and Müller, 2022), psychology (Åsberg Johnels et al, 2022), product design (Jeon, Cho, and Oh, 2021), and many others.…”