Neuromarketing Symposium (12/01)

Published on the 31 janvier 2012

On the 12th January, I had the chance to be invited by the student organization Sorbonne Symposium to their symposium on Neuromarketing. Neurosciences play a role in usability, and the symposium specially covered Functional Magnetic resonance imaging. The idea is to use a scanner (as used in a hospital) to measure the effect a website (or an ad, or any kind of stimulus) has on our brain activity. So we can measure (1) which functional zone is activated in our brain, (2) with which intensity, and (3) whether it is positive or a negative effect.

It can look pretty complicated, and as a matter of fact, only a dozen agencies offer this kind of services in the world. But it does present some potential: used with eye-tracking, it is a way to measure what users look at on a Web page, and the effect what they look at has on them.

About eye-tracking, we had the chance to have a speaker from Tobii, and a live demonstration of their device. It was quite impressive, and especially edifying to see how this technology can be used to navigate. For example, I was reading a text on the screen, and the system was automatically scrolling up or down according to the position of my eyes.

For anyone interested in knowing more about functional MRI or eye-tracking, here is a report of the whole symposium (in French only).

©Photo credits Tobii.com