Using Mouse Movement Heatmaps to Visualize User Attention to Words

User attention on web pages is commonly visualized using heatmaps. Substantial mouse activity in an area of a web page may indicate substantial user attention. Accordingly, areas of web pages are painted with hot and cold colors based on the frequency of mouse clicks and movements in these areas. This paper introduces a new type of web page heatmap, the Word Attention Heatmap (WAH), which visualizes user attention to text words based on mouse movements. Naturally, complex words and unclear text may draw more attention and increase reading time, and therefore, may be painted in hotter colors. Consequently, WAHs may help in identifying complex words and challenging sentences as part of a process of improving and simplifying textual web content.