APPLICATION OF EYE TRACKING (ET) IN THE TRAINING OF DESIGNERS, A CASE STUDY OF THE DESIGN OF COMMERCIAL SPACES FOCUSED ON THE CONSUMER EXPERIENCE

The purchase decision is affected by the stimuli and perceptions that consumers receive during the purchase ritual; with this objective, techniques such as Eye Tracking (ET) have been developed to enhance the design of commercial spaces and the consumer experience to improve brand identity and loyalty. The application of neuroscience allows knowing with certainty the answers that the consumers have in front of the different stimuli that they perceive in the commercial environment.

Improvement of the capabilities that the use of ET gives to the design, implies that this technology is involved in the training of young designers, allows a better control of the visual stimuli for the design of spaces; this implies the modification of traditional methods of design education.

To illustrate the capabilities that ET brings to the training of designers and the transformation of the design process, a descriptive - qualitative research was developed, focused on the ethnographic aspects and the opinion of the consumers, as opposed to stimuli provided in establishments of alcoholics and sale of non-alcoholic drinks (pub). It was developed with a sample (n = 11), frequent assistants of the Pub (age range between 18 and 30 years).

A series of 44 photographs representing the journey followed by those attending the Pub was presented to the exhibition; ET technology was used to identify which visual stimuli and which aspects of the different areas of the Pub concentrate the attention of consumers; the analysis allowed to identify the focal points of greater attention in the consumers and also those aspects of the space that do not generate interest. These results allow to make adjustments in the design of the space to improve the consumption experience, boosting the frequency of attendance to the Pub, product consumption and brand loyalty.

Control of visual stimuli from the design of commercial space enables the designer to develop a better consumer experience, which achieve a higher perceptual acceptance and positioning in consumers, aspects that should be taken into account in the design process of commercial spaces because of the advantage it can represent in the market, boosting profits and brand loyalty.