Gaze Cueing

Websites compete for attention. Designers place important information prominently, hoping users will notice it. But gaze patterns are difficult to predict, banners get ignored, and calls-to-action are overlooked. The question is: Which cue stimuli reliably direct attention? How strong is this effect in digital interfaces—and what evidence exists to support it?

Studies

The Foundational Experiment on Gaze Cueing

Jon Driver and his colleagues Michael Friesen and Alan Kingstone conducted a groundbreaking experiment in 1998 at University College London. Twenty-four participants sat in front of a screen displaying a schematic face in the center—two black dots for eyes and a line for a nose. The 'eyes' then randomly looked left or right. After 100, 300, or 1000 milliseconds, a letter (F or T) appeared on either the left or right side of the face. Participants were asked to identify the letter as quickly as possible. The remarkable finding: even though the gaze direction had no predictive value (50% invalid cues), participants responded 20-40 milliseconds faster when the letter appeared in the direction of the gaze. The effect persisted even when participants were explicitly instructed to ignore the gaze direction.

Gaze Cueing in Realistic Web Design Scenarios

Stephen Langton and his colleagues conducted an eye-tracking study using real advertisements at the University of Stirling in 2009. Forty-eight participants viewed print ads for perfumes—some featuring a model looking directly at the camera, others showing the same model looking at the product. The researchers measured how quickly and how long participants fixated on the advertised product. The results revealed that when the model looked at the product, viewers' gaze reached it an average of 84 milliseconds earlier and remained on it 32% longer. When the model gazed directly into the camera, attention remained fixed on the face—and the product received significantly less attention. The effect was stronger in women than in men and also occurred with schematic line drawings.

Faces Dominate Visual Attention

Moran Cerf and his colleagues conducted an eye-tracking experiment at the California Institute of Technology in 2009 that demonstrated the magnetic pull of faces. Twenty subjects viewed 200 photographs of everyday scenes—some containing people, others without. Each image appeared for only 5 seconds. The eye-tracking data revealed a striking pattern: When a face was present, subjects fixated on it within the first second 83% of the time. In images without faces, attention was distributed more evenly across different objects. The most remarkable finding: Even when important objects (cars, animals) appeared in the image, faces dominated attention—receiving an average of 2.7 times more fixations than any other element.

Gaze Direction Guides Attention

Michel Wedel and Rik Pieters investigated how gaze direction in advertisements guides attention in a 2008 study at the University of Groningen. They analyzed eye-tracking data from 3,600 participants who viewed 1,363 print advertisements. Half of the ads featured models looking directly at the camera, while the other half showed models looking at the advertised product. The results were striking: When models looked at the product, viewers' fixation duration on the product increased by an average of 84%. More specifically, the probability that viewers looked at the product at all doubled from 34% to 68%. In contrast, direct eye contact with the camera captured attention on the face itself—leaving the product with less attention.

Principle

Which principle for Customer Experience Design can be derived from this? The Gaze-Cueing Effect demonstrates that eye gaze is a powerful yet often underestimated tool for directing attention. While traditional design elements like arrows or buttons are consciously perceived and rationally processed, human gaze operates at an unconscious, reflexive level—making it significantly harder to ignore. This mechanism proves particularly effective when guiding users toward call-to-action elements, important information, or products, as it taps into natural curiosity and social behavior. However, the effect only works optimally when the gaze direction is unambiguous and the target clearly identifiable—too many competing visual elements can dilute its impact. The following guidelines demonstrate how to implement this principle in practice.

Guidelines

Align faces on CTAs

When featuring people on your website, ensure they're looking toward important elements rather than directly at the camera. A model gazing at a call-to-action button naturally directs visitors' attention there. Test both variants through A/B testing: frontal gaze versus gaze directed toward the CTA. The effect is measurable through heatmaps and conversion rates.

Humanizing schematic indicator arrows

Classic arrows are often overlooked due to banner blindness. Replace them with schematic faces showing gaze direction—even simple eye dots trigger the gaze-cueing effect. This approach works particularly well in onboarding flows, tutorials, and forms where you need to guide users through complex interfaces.

Align testimonials strategically

For customer testimonials with photos: Position the photo so the person looks toward the text rather than away from the layout. If the face is looking left, place the text to its right. When possible, request shots with varying gaze directions during the photo shoot to maintain design flexibility.

Video thumbnails with gaze direction

For video thumbnails on landing pages: Feature a person looking at the play button or directing their gaze toward where key information appears. Avoid direct eye contact with the camera—while it captures attention, it fails to guide users further. The thumbnail should strategically direct the viewer's gaze through the interface.

Direct gaze toward call-to-action

When featuring people in landing pages or advertisements, ensure they look toward important elements—never directly at the camera. The model's gaze acts as a visual arrow, guiding users to the CTA, product image, or form. Test different gaze directions through A/B testing; the effect is measurable.

Remove faces from conversion-critical areas

In forms, checkout processes, or complex configurators, avoid using large faces. They capture attention needed for task completion. If images of people are necessary (such as for testimonials), place them outside the primary task area or reduce their size significantly.

Using Small Faces to Build Trust

When the goal is building trust or emotional connection (rather than direct conversion), faces work well—but in smaller formats. Testimonials with photos, team introductions, or customer references benefit from faces, provided they don't distract from the main message. The rule of thumb: the more cognitively demanding the task, the smaller or less prominent faces should be.

Test attention distribution through eye-tracking

Use heatmap tools or eye-tracking simulations to verify whether faces direct attention toward or away from critical elements. Many designers underestimate the magnetic pull of faces. A simple rule: If 70% of initial attention focuses on the face, you must either redirect the gaze or remove the face entirely.