Space Between launches biometric user experience lab

Tech start-up Space Between has created what it claims is the UKs only biometric user experience lab to capture customer engagement experiences, and help online retailers understand what drives purchase behaviour.

The UX lab is a data capture system that records human response to retailers’ websites and apps through emotional arousal and stress reactions. It does this by monitoring skin sweat, facial expression analysis, and attention analysis through eye tracking. The biometric user experience lab is portable and quick to set up. Space Between takes a sample of customers as part of a focus group and invites them to use either a clients website or a competitor website or app, depending on the information the client wishes to capture, then monitors individual reactions through a series of tests and questions, and gathers quantitative and qualitative data.

“All we need to set up our mobile lab is a quiet room with good lighting,” said Luke Frake, director of development at Space Between. “We want a relaxed environment so we can quickly build rapport with our test group, to track genuine responses. We want those taking the test to think and act as though they were actually completing an online task such as buying some goods or finding something specific. The whole process takes an hour per person.”

The eye-tracking analysis highlights if users are missing or skimming over important pieces of content while also identifying areas where users are spending more time. Facial Expression Analysis captures expressive emotion through the different forms of facial expressions and body language. The face displays a full range of expressions which can be linked to emotions. During a typical session, Space Between monitors 34 different facial landmarks and identifies up to 20 individual facial expressions which are mapped to seven emotions – anger, contempt, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise. The final part of the jigsaw is GSR, or Galvanic Skin Response, where electrode sensors attached to fingers measure electrical skin conductance through sweat caused by emotional response.

All of this data is captured by Space Between who then produce a report highlighting actions, such as where any potential problems might be and how to resolve them. The company said the methodology has led to increases in conversion rates, for some clients, of over 150 per cent.