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Follow The Gaze: Turning Eye Tracking Data Into Aquarium Ticket Sales

Overview
Shedd Aquarium, as a client of Pratt DX Center,  wants to know the potential problem with their ticketing purchase pathway. Our team conducted 16 eye-tracking tests and provided 3 insightful recommendations on the navigation, pricing, and add-on issues.
    Info
    • Timeline:  Feb 2025 - May 2025
    • Team Kelp Desk: Conor M, Hridya N, Iris S(me), Saskia S.
    • My Role: Eye-tracking testing,  Data collection & analysis 
    • My takeaways: Eye-tracking study, Quantitative + Qualitative data analysis, Insightful recommendations that value business impact


    Client Presentation





    Define the Research Question

    Shedd Aquarium has a clear and straightforward question that needs to have more insights through eye-tracking studies:
    “How might we make a better Shedd Aquarium's ticket purchasing process for individual and family visitors to  support their visits?”


    Deconstruct the Question
    Still, the question was too vague for research. 

    So we looked into their ticket purchasing process and thought about the possible problems the users have, talked to the senior designer at Shedd, then deconstructed the questions into 4 parts:

    Ticket purchasing process


    • Visual design: How does the use of visual indicators impact the task completion?

    • Content clarity: Do users easily understand and differentiate ticket categories?

    • Mobile Experience: How do mobile users interact with the system compared to desktop?

    • Process Efficiency: How does the number and sequence of steps impact decision-making?


    Having the specific questions in mind, we made the interview script and post-interview questionnaire, and started the test recruitment process.




    What is Our Eye-Tracking Test About? 👀

    • A simple task: “Purchase a ticket to visit the Shedd Aquarium for next week. And additionally, see penguins in 4D!”

    • Interview questions & Post-interview questionnaire: Participants’ feelings on clarity, design, add-ons, and check-out process (follow-up if possible)

    • Participants: 16 participants in total, 4 for each member
    It’s hard to recruit participants to do an on-site test(though we gave out a $15 gift card as an incentive),  we found the participants through personal connections.

    We also spent time setting up the Tobii Lab.

    Participants’ Overview





    How We Find Out the Insights and Prioritize Them 

    Having all the data in the lab is just the start of our deep dive. In order to find out the usability issues, we booked lots of spots in the lab and spent time replaying the recordings, looking into the heat maps for each page, and taking notes on the problems we found.
    We made a rainbow spreadsheet to better organize the data and prioritize our major issues.

    And we picked the problems that lack color, compared to the eye-tracking heat maps, fixation rates, and prioritized the 4 major issues.    Finding insights through a bunch of recordings and fixation data was not an easy thing. We finally found the path by making spreadsheets and converting the info into readable data.




    Top 4 Issues & Recommendations

    1. Add-on: High cognitive loads on understanding the different ticket options cause business loss

    Severity level: 🟡 Mid
    Emphasis level: 🔴 High

    The “must-see tour” and the add-on options are located on different pages. Users took time going back and forth browsing the options and got confused by the descriptions. 

    In addition, the add-on page contains too much text, making users get lost or overlook some of the options, which can cause business loss.



    High cognitive load on reading the content
    An example of failure in finding the add-on because of not scrolling down


    💡Recommendation: Rename and combine the general ticket page and add-on page
    • Rename “Must See Tour” as “General Tickets with Exclusive Tour” to let the visitors know what’s the difference between general tickets and tour tickets

    • Combine the General Ticket page and the Add-on page, shorten the description, and use accordions to make the users browse all the options at one glance

    • Add a comparison sheet or short explanation on the different types of tickets
    This was also the problem the client highlighted most, our recommendation provides an effective way to address it.

    2. Pricing: The pricing info appears too late in the flow
    Severity level: 🔴 High

    The late pricing in the calendar and time slot, which is the 4th and 5th step of the check-out process, delays the decision-making and causes drop-offs.
    💡Recommendation: 

    • Redesign the visual hierarchy on the time slot page.

    • A/B Testing on the place of pricing

            Hypothesis: If dynamic pricing is visible earlier in the flow, fewer visitors will be entering the flow to price check.
            Key Metrics: Reduction in funnel entry from “Plan Your Visit” page
            Secondary Metrics: Drop-off from calendar page, Average session duration for non-IL users, Price calendar interactions

    3. Calendar: Users got confused on the calendar design and the price difference shown on the calendar
    Severity level: 🟡 Mid

    Users lingered on the ticket date because of the different prices shown on the calendar, leading to the highest fixation count (243,000ms) and total fixation time (624 fixations). The tiredness made the users skim the next page quickly, which caused potential business loss.
    The user was confused by the different prices on different dates


    💡Recommendation:

    • Minimize content to reduce processing time

    •  Dynamic pricing on the time slot page instead of the calendar page


    4. Navigation: Users lack of freedom to go back and forth
    Severity level: 🟡 Mid

    Users felt a high cognitive load looking at the unclear visual designs and trying to go back and forth



    💡Recommendation: 

    • Consistent placement and color on the buttons

    • Add breadcrumbs to enhance clarity and user freedom




    Reflection

    What I learned 💁🏻‍♀️

    • Eye-tacking Testing method + Tobii lab operation
    • Qualitative + Quantitative data analysis 


      What we did well

      • Good amount of testing + Thorough data analysis
      • Insightful recommendations that value the business impact
      • We cared about the same thing the client was focusing on (Add-on!)
      • Good presentation


      What we could do better

      • More visual mockup on recommendations
      • More detailed analysis on the quantitative data (friction point)





      ©Iris Sun 2025