Trapp Anna K, Wienrich Carolin
Department of Psychology and Ergonomics, Technische Universität Berlin, Marchstr. 23 - MAR 3-2, 10587, Berlin, Germany.
Department of Human-Computer-Media, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, Campus Nord, Oswald-Külpe-Weg, 82, 97074, Würzburg, Germany.
Cogn Res Princ Implic. 2018 Oct 17;3(1):39. doi: 10.1186/s41235-018-0133-4.
Users of mobile touch devices are often confronted with a great number of apps, challenging an efficient access to single applications. Especially when looking for infrequently used apps, users have to perform a visual search. We address this problem in two studies by applying knowledge about visual search efficiency to app icons on mobile touch devices. We aimed to transfer findings of similarity grouping for complex stimuli to a more applied setting and to investigate the effect of search efficiency on user experience. In Study 1 (N = 18), we varied set size and target presence as well as visual similarity between icons by color manipulation. Results indicated a highly efficient search when the target was easy to discriminate from the distractors and a less efficient search with increasing similarity. These results were replicated in a second, more realistic use case (N = 36). Regarding user experience, Study 2 showed that perceived usability and intuitiveness increased with search efficiency but that the overall liking also depended on the visual variety of the design. Moreover, although participants showed a general interest in a system supporting their search, most participants had concerns about data privacy with such a system. In conclusion, the results indicate that concepts and findings from basic attention research serve as fruitful heuristics for searches in more realistic (applied) settings. Furthermore, results showed that similarity manipulation with color works without controlling for other icon characteristics (e.g. luminance, shade). The findings might offer a new approach when designing for smooth interaction with mobile touch devices.
移动触摸设备的用户常常面对大量应用程序，这给高效访问单个应用带来了挑战。尤其是在寻找不常用的应用时，用户不得不进行视觉搜索。我们在两项研究中解决了这个问题，方法是将有关视觉搜索效率的知识应用于移动触摸设备上的应用图标。我们旨在将复杂刺激的相似性分组研究结果应用到更实际的场景中，并研究搜索效率对用户体验的影响。在研究1（N = 18）中，我们通过颜色操纵改变了集合大小、目标是否存在以及图标之间的视觉相似性。结果表明，当目标易于与干扰项区分开时，搜索效率很高，而随着相似性增加，搜索效率则降低。这些结果在第二个更实际的用例（N = 36）中得到了重复验证。关于用户体验，研究2表明，感知到的可用性和直观性随着搜索效率的提高而增加，但总体喜好也取决于设计的视觉多样性。此外，尽管参与者对支持他们搜索的系统普遍感兴趣，但大多数参与者对这样一个系统的数据隐私问题有所担忧。总之，结果表明基础注意力研究的概念和结果可为更实际（应用）场景中的搜索提供富有成效的启发式方法。此外，结果表明，在不控制其他图标特征（例如亮度、阴影）的情况下，通过颜色进行相似性操纵也有效。这些发现可能为设计与移动触摸设备的流畅交互提供一种新方法。
