The Influence Of Icon Familiarity,complexity And Text Label On Icon Search Efficiency And Usability Test

Icon search is a basic operation in human-computer interaction,and its process can be summarized as the cognitive processing of one or more icons by users and their response behavior.Nowadays,users’ demand for icon search has begun to develop from a cognitive level to a higher aesthetic level.Previous studies have found that the efficiency of icon search is affected by icon familiarity,complexity,and text labels,but some conclusions remain divergent.Usability is a core element of the user experience.Currently,research on icon usability mainly focuses on the size,color,background shape,border,and so on of icons,with less attention paid to text labels.Therefore,this study will explore the impact of icon familiarity,complexity,and text labels on icon search efficiency,and implement relevant usability studies.It is divided into three experiments.Experiment 1 is 2(icon familiarity: familiar,unfamiliar)× 2(Icon complexity:complex,simple)× 2(Detection Point Location: Consistent,Inconsistent).Three factor within-subjects design,using icons as target stimuli and text as neutral stimuli,using the dot detection paradigm to present both stimuli simultaneously,measuring icon search efficiency through user attention bias,and exploring the impact of icon familiarity and complexity on user attention.A total of 30 participants participated.Experiment 2 is 2(icon familiarity: familiar,unfamiliar)× 2(Icon complexity:complex,simple)× 2(Text label: display,hide).Three factor within-subjects design,including two sub experiments,Experiment 2a and Experiment 2b.Using the visual search paradigm,users were required to search for target icons among three icons based on prompts.Experiment 2a is a text prompt,and Experiment 2b is an icon prompt.The efficiency of icon search was quantified by the user’s search time,and the impact of icon familiarity,icon complexity,and text labels on icon search time is explored.A total of60 subjects participated in experiment 2a and experiment 2b,with 30 subjects each.Experiment 3 is 2(icon familiarity: familiar,unfamiliar)× 2(Icon complexity:complex,simple)× 2(Text label: display,hide).Three factor within-subjects design.We conducted usability testing by simulating user real task scenarios,record user behavior,eye movements,and subjective evaluation data,and explored the impact of icon text label display and hiding on icon usability with different familiarity and complexity.A total of 31 participants participated.The findings of the study were as follows:(1)When presenting icons and text to users at the same time,users experience attention acceleration for familiar and complex icons.(2)Compared to unfamiliar icons and simple icons,users have shorter search times for familiar and complex icons,and the impact of text labels is also reduced(Text prompt only).(3)When a task corresponds to a familiar icon,compared to displaying a text tag,hiding the text tag will slightly reduce the user’s efficiency in completing the task,but the effectiveness will remain basically unchanged,and subjective satisfaction will be higher.Finally,this study provides several constructive suggestions for relevant personnel and industry.