Hi Stephen,
As the LSP community is so vast now, I wouldn’t count out the possibility that studies might have been conducted in the area of eye-tracking during an LSP process, although I would think it is highly improbable.
Such research might influence how we present the methodology. Another aspect of participant behaviour that we “know”, while I am unaware of the extent of academic research in the field, is the manifest increase of physical proximity between individuals, whether it is while they are rubbing shoulders while looking for the appropriate pieces in the trays, trying to fix elements together in a shared build or standing together surveying their model to look for areas of improvement. This physical proximity facilitates trust and openness, which in turn helps to strengthen the willingness of all individuals to contribute without fear of judgement and boosts solidarity of the participants in their sharing of their co-created ideas.
If the findings of eye-tracking research could strengthen the argument that LSP is a genuine force for the democratisation of decision-making, I’m sure that many of our colleagues would find it useful to reference.
However, I fear that eye-tracking research has been over-instrumentalised, particularly in the area of web experience and so I would therefore recommend using another term, if you seek to gain support for such an initiative. We don’t want people fearing that they are being spied upon. In fact if genuine academic research were to be carried out in this area, the challenge would be to have people wearing the glasses, while fully involving themselves in their LSP session.
I tend to be a very open person, but I still keep my Facebook and LinkedIn social networks separate. In the same way, if I were a member of a group of people building a vision of the future of the seriousplaypro community, while wearing eye-tracking glasses, I can assure you that I would be very wary about where I was looking and, though it would be un-related and un-documented, I would probably be on my guard about what I would be saying. So, the actual LSP session would be unrealistic, as would be the findings of the research.
So before embarking on such an endeavour, any researcher would need to factor out as much of this distortion as possible.
All the best,
Eli
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