An interface–visual–dwelling mediation pathway in historic commercial streets: Insights from eye-tracking

How micro-scale street interface elements in historic commercial districts shape pedestrian dwelling behavior through visual perception remains underexplored, limiting evidence-based design strategies. This study develops and tests a mediation model linking interface elements, visual perception, and dwelling behavior. Ten functional, social, and experiential interface types were categorized. In-situ eye-tracking experiments combined with behavioral observations, analyzed via mixed-effects modeling and bootstrap mediation, yielded four key findings. First, rivers and activity-related elements significantly promoted dwelling by prolonging fixation, while medium-attraction types showed conditional positive effects, cornices and walls displayed negative effects, and plants had no stable influence. Second, visual allocation systematically differed across interfaces: rivers and activities were most attractive; commercial, openings, and devices were intermediate; cornices and walls were weak or suppressive. Third, fixation duration positively predicted dwelling, with marginal effects showing a monotonic increasing trend. Fourth, results identified diversified pathways, including visual-driven, condition-dependent, and suppressive mechanisms. Overall, findings demonstrate coexistence of facilitative, suppressive, and null effects, enriching theoretical understanding of visual–behavior linkages and informing fine-grained design and management strategies for historic commercial streets.