Qualitative study to identify icons characteristics on mobile phones applications interfaces

Modern mobile phone applications offer much support to various age group users. Unfortunately, there are still issues with the interfaces in terms of its learnability. Many users find it hard to learn and use the modern mobile phone application interfaces. Despite a lot of ongoing research examining the mobile phone applications interfaces learnability issues, very little research has explored on the difficulty faced by the users when interacting with graphical icons, the most important element of an interface. This paper presents an exploratory study to identify which icons characteristics support the initial icon usability for various age group users. Twenty five (25) test participants from two different age groups took part in the study. The first group consists of 12 younger adults (age 20-40) and the second consists of 13 older adults (age 50+). From the study findings, both age group users stated that there are issues with the existing mobile phone applications interfaces. The study reveals that specific icon characteristics - complexity (i.e. how difficult is icon to identify and interpret), familiarity (how familiar are users with the icon) and semantic distance could improve icon learnability. This led to a discussion on how the findings could help mobile phone application interface developers to develop mobile phone icons that best suits to the requirements of various age group users.

[1]  Wendy Ju,et al.  Origami Desk: integrating technological innovation and human-centric design , 2002, DIS '02.

[2]  Y. Eaves,et al.  A synthesis technique for grounded theory data analysis. , 2001, Journal of advanced nursing.

[3]  William K. Horton,et al.  The Icon Book: Visual Symbols for Computer Systems and Documentation , 1994 .

[4]  Martin B. Curry,et al.  Exploring the effects of icon characteristics on user performance: the role of icon concreteness, complexity, and distinctiveness. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.

[5]  Sabine Schröder,et al.  Effects of Icon Concreteness and Complexity on Semantic Transparency: Younger vs. Older Users , 2008, ICCHP.

[6]  Carolyn B. Seaman,et al.  Qualitative Methods in Empirical Studies of Software Engineering , 1999, IEEE Trans. Software Eng..

[7]  Peter Graf,et al.  The Learnability of Mobile Application Interfaces Needs Improvement , 2008 .

[8]  M. Lepper,et al.  Motivational techniques of expert human tutors: Lessons for the design of computer-based tutors. , 1993 .

[9]  C. Peirce,et al.  Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce , 1936, Nature.

[10]  D. Hawthorn,et al.  Possible implications of aging for interface designers , 2000, Interact. Comput..

[11]  Joseph Krajcik,et al.  The design of guided learner-adaptable scaffolding in interactive learning environments , 1996, CHI.

[12]  Konstantinos Chorianopoulos,et al.  Unaided Icon Recognition in Mobile Phones: A Comparative Study with Young Users , 2010 .

[13]  Ronald Baecker,et al.  Bringing icons to life , 1991, CHI.

[14]  Susan Wiedenbeck,et al.  The use of icons and labels in an end user application program: An empirical study of learning and retention , 1999, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[15]  Peter Graf,et al.  Age-related differences in the initial usability of mobile device icons , 2011, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[16]  Martin B. Curry,et al.  Measuring symbol and icon characteristics: Norms for concreteness, complexity, meaningfulness, familiarity, and semantic distance for 239 symbols , 1999, Behavior research methods, instruments, & computers : a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.