Abstract
Previous research on icons in human-computer interaction has always focused on usability and recognition efficiency, but few kinds of research on user cognition. This research aims to evaluate the relationship between icon aesthetics of different types of apps and user cognition. This study uses three types of App icons in the Huawei app store: text symbol icons, graphic icons, and image icons as examples. Through a questionnaire survey, aesthetic and cognition variables were assessed. The study confirmed that the aesthetic level of graphical icons is high, and the participant’s cognitive results of different icon types are different.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Liu, W., Cao, Y., Proctor, R.W.: How do app icon color and border shape influence visual search efficiency and user experience? Evidence from an eye-tracking study. Int J Ind Ergon. 84, 103160 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ergon.2021.103160
Chen, C.-C.: User recognition and preference of app icon stylization design on the smartphone. In: Stephanidis, C. (ed.) HCI 2015. CCIS, vol. 529, pp. 9–15. Springer, Cham (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21383-5_2
Satcharoen, K.: The effect of icon entropy, icon concreteness and time on human selection accuracy. In: IEEE 4th International Conference on Computer and Communication Systems, ICCCS 2019, pp. 379–382 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/CCOMS.2019.8821672
Smythwood, M., Hadzikadic, M.: The effects of icon characteristics on search time. In: Ahram, T.Z., Falcão, C. (eds.) AHFE 2018. AISC, vol. 794, pp. 57–67. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94947-5_6
Jin, H.: Influence of icon design style on user’s cognition. In: ICHSSR, pp. 550–553 (2020). https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200428.118
Kamarulzaman, N.A., Fabil, N., Zaki, Z.M., Ismail, R.: Comparative study of icon design for mobile application. J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 1551(1) (2020). https://doi.org/10.1088/17426596/1551/1/012007
Ho, C.H., Hou, K.C.: Exploring the attractive factors of app icons. KSII Trans. Internet Inf. Syst. 9(6), 2251–2270 (2015). https://doi.org/10.3837/tiis.2015.06.016
Qiang, S., Fei, H.: An icon design approach based on symbolic and users’ cognitive psychology. Indones. J. Electr. Eng. Comput. Sci. 4(3), 695–705 (2016). https://doi.org/10.11591/ijeecs.v4.i3.pp695-705
Shen, Z., Zhang, L., Xiao, X., Li, R., Liang, R.: Icon familiarity affects the performance of complex cognitive tasks. Iperception 11(2) (2020). https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669520910167
Thüring, M., Mahlke, S.: Usability, aesthetics and emotions in human-technology interaction. Int. J. Psychol. 42(4), 253–264 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1080/00207590701396674
Hou, K.-C., Ho, C.-H.: A preliminary study on aesthetic of apps icon design, p. 1 (2012)
Hassenzahl, M., Tractinsky, N.: User experience - a research agenda. Behav. Inf. Technol. 25(2), 91–97 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1080/01449290500330331
Wang, M., Li, X.: Effects of the aesthetic design of icons on app downloads: evidence from an android market. Electron. Commer. Res. 17(1), 83–102 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-016-9245-4
Lavie, T., Tractinsky, N.: Assessing dimensions of perceived visual aesthetics of web sites. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud. 60(3), 269–298 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.(2003).09.002
McDougall, S., Reppa, I., Smith, G., Playfoot, D.: Beyond emoticons: combining affect and cognition in icon design. In: Harris, D. (ed.) EPCE 2009. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 5639, pp. 71–80. Springer, Heidelberg (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02728-4_8
Reppa, I., McDougall, S., Sonderegger, A., Schmidt, W.C.: Mood moderates the effect of aesthetic appeal on performance. Cogn. Emot. 35(1), 15–29 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1800446
Silvennoinen, J.M., Jokinen, J.P.P.: Aesthetic appeal and visual usability in four icon design eras. In: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – Proceedings, pp. 4390–4400 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858462
Freeman, M.H.: The aesthetics of human cognition, pp. 1–23 (2018)
Kawabata, H., Zeki, S.: Neural correlates of beauty. J. Neurophysiol. 91(4), 1699–1705 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00696.2003
Vartanian, O., Goel, V.: Neuroanatomical correlates of aesthetic preference for paintings. NeuroReport 15(5), 893–897 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1097/00001756-200404090-00032
Bara, I., Binney, R.J., Ramsey, R.: Investigating the role of executive resources across aesthetic and non-aesthetic, pp. 1–4 (2021) https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ydmbr
Bara, I., Binney, R.J., Ward, R., Ramsey, R.: A generalised semantic cognition account of aesthetic experience, pp. 1–38 (2021). https://doi.org/10.31234/OSF.IO/WBEQX
Blijlevens, J., Hekkert, P., Leder, H., Thurgood, C., Chen, L.L., Whitfield, T.W.A.: The aesthetic pleasure in design scale: the development of a scale to measure aesthetic pleasure for designed artifacts. Psychol. Aesthetics Creat. Arts 11(1), 86–98 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000098
Acknowledgment
The work was supported by Liaoning Province Education Department (JYT2020098), and the teaching reform fund of Shenyang Aerospace University (2022).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Li, Q., Liu, Z., Wang, P. (2022). The Impact of Visual Aesthetics of Different Types of APP Icons on User Cognition. In: Stephanidis, C., Antona, M., Ntoa, S. (eds) HCI International 2022 Posters. HCII 2022. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1580. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06417-3_31
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06417-3_31
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-06416-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-06417-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)