3M has announced the launch of their new Visual Attention Service.
The Visual Attention Service is a new online service that helps graphic designers, communicators and marketers quickly test the impact of graphic designs and increase the probability that viewers will pay attention to the most important content in the first three to five seconds.
“3M’s remarkable Visual Attention Service demonstrates how technology can support creativity in ways that help guide and validate a designer’s decisions”
Called the 3M Visual Attention Service, the online tool is based on the company’s expertise in vision science and analyzes all the visual elements within an image, such as color, shape, contrast and text, to accurately predict if a design’s visual hierarchy is strong enough to attract a viewer’s attention. The Visual Attention Service also helps designers understand which visual elements will drive the most attention, providing the critical information designers need to guide the revision process.
“Creative designs have historically been evaluated subjectively, but stakeholders are increasingly looking for scientific affirmation that designs will draw attention to key messages. This is a crucial step in compelling viewers to take the right action,” said Bill Smyth, business manager, 3M Digital Out of Home Department. “Art truly meets science with our latest innovation. We’ve leveraged the company’s 30 years of vision science experience to create an easy-to-use tool that delivers the objective assurance executives need while maintaining the designer’s creative freedom.”
Photos, creative content, packaging concepts and all manner of creative media can be evaluated in different scenes or contexts. Users simply upload images to 3M’s Web portal, and within minutes, the Visual Attention Service tool analyzes and reveals the results.
The results include a heat map and region map. The heat map highlights areas likely to receive attention within the first three to five seconds. The region map outlines these areas and reveals a score of the predicted probability that a person will look at the area along with diagnostics to show why the region is likely to get attention.
“When designing Out-of-Home advertising, it’s crucial to get a key message across in just a matter of seconds,” said Mendi LeBlanc, Creative Director, Lamar Advertising Company. “The Visual Attention Service by 3M allows us to check our design instincts against something scientific. Clients respect that we can provide this proven validation, especially when it is provided by a company they can trust like 3M.”
Following a successful November market test, 3M’s service is now globally available and costs as little as $5 for each image upload through the Microsoft Windows Azure platform.
"3M’s remarkable Visual Attention Service demonstrates how technology can support creativity in ways that help guide and validate a designer’s decisions,” said Don Leeke, general manager of Microsoft Corp.’s North Central District. “Through the Microsoft Windows Azure platform, a cloud services operating system, Microsoft offers a robust foundation for 3M’s solution to help its customers advance their creative processes.”
3M Australia
http://www.3M.com/vas
