Empirical Insights into Eye-Tracking for Design Evaluation: Applications in Visual Communication and New Media Design

(1) Background: As digital technology continues to reshape visual landscapes, understanding how design elements influence customer experience has become essential. Eye-tracking technology offers a powerful, quantitative approach to assessing visibility, aesthetics, and design components, providing unique insights into visual engagement. (2) Methods: This paper presents a systematic review of eye-tracking methodologies applied in design research. Thirty studies were selected for analysis from recognized academic databases using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method. Employing the Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcomes (PICO) framework, this review focused on experimental studies in visual communication and new media design that utilized visual symbols for communication and leveraged new media technologies. (3) Results: The findings corroborated that eye-tracking technology offers in-depth insights into gaze patterns, visual perception, and attention, which can inform design strategies. This review shows that assessing visual designs based on eye-tracking data can enhance consumer-centered interfaces, better align with user preferences, and foster more engaged behaviors in both digital and physical environments. (4) Conclusions: This review deepens our understanding of the cognitive and emotional processes underlying visual engagement. It also suggests new avenues for integrating diverse eye-tracking metrics into design evaluation, offering practical applications for improving design strategies and advancing the field of design research.