Testing a gaze interaction without a confirmed site design

The situation

A new interactive feature was approved for implementation, but the overall site design is still undecided. The current site is a simple coming-soon page with a static image. A high-resolution portrait with blank eyes has been generated, allowing for code-driven pupils. The goal is to create an interaction where the portrait appears to look at visitors as they scroll, without disrupting the current site. A separate preview page can be used to test this interaction without affecting the public coming-soon page.

What they weighed

• Build a reusable gaze interaction driven by scroll and pointer input with eye coordinates as data, and show it on a separate scrollable preview page.

  Chosen

• Add the gaze interaction directly to the current coming-soon homepage and expand the page so scrolling demonstrates it.

• Add a looping portrait animation without scroll input.

What they decided

Build a reusable gaze interaction driven by scroll and pointer input with eye coordinates as data, and show it on a separate scrollable preview page.

Why

The requested gaze behavior is approved, but the full site design is not. A dedicated scrollable preview makes the motion concrete without changing the public coming-soon page, and a generic gaze driver can be reused. This approach allows for testing and refinement of the interaction without committing to a specific site design. It also ensures that the current homepage remains unaffected.

The first step

Implement the preview and verify visible gaze changes at different sizes.

How they would know it worked

The portrait is visible while scrolling; pupils stay inside the whites and respond to scroll and pointer; reduced-motion freezes the effect; the current homepage is unaffected.

How it turned out

Not known yet. The result is added here when it comes in.