How do web-designers & User Interface (UI) developers represent digital information so that users can easily & enjoyably access information for which they are seeking?  In a series of experiments, I have explored the impact of display features, user attention, eye-movements & user familiarity on users’ (perceived & actual) ability to search for & track online information.  

Together with my research teams, we use several methods to learn about the usability of different digital UIs, and how people interact with & access online information.  Each study begins with a discovery phase seeking out challenges & pain-points that users face when using the UI. Designers, stakeholders & our team members initially speculate about potential problems which are then tested using mixed methods including behavioral assessments (described below) and survey or interview asking about user familiarity with the particular UIs and what issues users encountered while interacting with the UI. Reported challenges are prioritized (in terms of importance, difficulty, value & impact), and  narrowed to guide the design of each study.  

Various behavioral metrics are used including:  search times, (selection/mouse-click) accuracy, eye-fixations, and measures of attention (such as a probe-dot detection method embedded in a search task, that evaluates whether looking behavior aligns with search behavior & other metrics of engagement including pupil-size & recall).

Attitudinal measures include brief surveys or interviews following different task conditions to learn about user impressions of the different tasks (e.g., How easy was the task? Did you find what you were looking for? What challenges did you encounter?).

Sample research studies are reported below using above methodologies.  

Additional reported studies use UX methodologies that include Card Sorting, Tree-testing, Remote Usability assessments & brief surveys such as the System Usability Scale (SUS).

My research teams consist of 2 to 5 Rutgers students noted in linked pdf files, a software developer, and for non-University studies my teams also include a UI designer, and a web developer.