Eating with the eyes? Tracking food choice in restaurant’s menu

Abstract

Digitalization is considered the industrial revolution of the 21st century, helping companies to become more efficient and value-driven. This trend also reaches the restaurant sector, being present in all its spaces and activities, from the kitchen to customer service. The present study aimed to determine if the eye-tracker is a suitable tool to predict diners’ choices in the context of a restaurant. Three menu presentations were designed for the study: a basic menu with the name of the dishes and the prices; a menu that included the same information of the basic one, and a descriptive information of each dish; and a menu with an infographic of nutrition-related composition. A total of 180 consumers participated in the study (n ≈ 60 per menu), who evaluated one of the menus presented on a tablet with an integrated eye-tracker. Then, consumers completed a questionnaire indicating their dish choice and their opinion about the menu. Results showed that, when basic or descriptive information was displayed, the eye-tracking could be used to predict consumer’s decisions in the restaurant. A higher fixation duration resulted in a higher probability of choice when consumers looked at the basic menu and at the one with descriptive information, but the inclusion of an infographic with nutritional data diminished the prediction ability of the eye-tracker.