Presenting eye-tracking and biomedical animations

How can we assess and improve science communication for researcher audiences?

I will present my research with my colleague Drew Fast on using eye-tracking to assess how researchers perceive and understand biomedical animations on the Lung Endothelial Surface Layer at the science communication conference SciVizNYC 2017 in NYC on December 1st.

Eye-tracking, or recording where a viewer focuses, is used primarily in marketing and web design to quantitatively evaluate products. Biomedical animations have risen in popularity in biomedical education because they can describe many imperceptible processes, but how they, themselves are perceived has been largely unassessed. Our research as biomedical visualization graduate students was the first application of eye-tracking to assess blended 3D and 2D biomedical animations. Our talk will focus on the innovations and discoveries each research project found on this shared expedition: Chinami Michaels used eye-tracking to assess how research scientists’ expertise influenced their perception of a 3D molecular animation about an emerging molecular research topic, the Lung Endothelial Surface Layer.

Drew Fast created the first high quality HIV biomedical animation to address a significant lack of HIV medical information for the Deaf community. Eye-tracking with Deaf participants who use American Sign Language (ASL), revealed how participants manage multiple visual stimuli, providing key insights into designing better health and STEM materials for this underserved community.