XM Asia launches consumer experience lab with eye-tracking technology

Understood to be the first digital agency in Southeast Asia to develop the Tobii eye-tracking technology, XM Asia hopes the lab will become a regional centre of excellence for consumer research and human behaviour studies.

The lab will also include a range of heuristic techniques and usability metrics and will support projects across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Thailand and Hong Kong.

The eye-tracking technology aims to give a better understanding of how consumers interact with ads as well as banners and websites. It could also be used to understand consumer interaction with traditional media. 

“Simply put, we want to create a cerebral ‘sat nav’ framework for marketing that will optimise consumer education and transaction,” said Hema Thiagarajah, XM Asia’s user-experience director.

XM Asia said the lab will provide clients with data specific to Asian consumers, negating a reliance on US and European models.

Most Western research on website usability using eye-tracking technology concludes that consumers look at sites in an “F-shaped pattern”, a conclusion that has never been validated with Asian consumers, the agency pointed out.