Evaluating Visual Consistency of Icon Usage in Across-Devices

Abstract

Interface icons are often scaled to adapt to different displays in cross-device collaborations. However, adaptive scaling of icons may cause perceptual bias in how icon arrays are visually perceived, which reduces usability and coherent user experience. This article presents an empirical study that evaluates the perceptual bias in the consistency of icon spacing and size caused by adaptive scaling. Then the impact of various visual features of icons (i.e., the border shape, polarity, and composition) on the perceptual bias are investigated. In this study, we found that cross-device scaling of icons causes a perceptual bias in the consistency of icon spacing and size. The shape of the icon border has a significant difference in the perceived spacing of icons, and the bias of the round shape is smaller than that of the square shape. Moreover, changing the icon polarity can affect the perceptual bias of consistency in icon size. These findings are expected to propose scaling recommendations for improving the visual consistency of icon arrays across.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, and all the participants for actively participating in this experiment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52205290), the Provincial Key Social Science Foundation of Zhejiang, China (22JCXK03Z), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (S20210164).

Notes on contributors

Xiaojiao Chen

Xiaojiao Chen is a professor and PhD mentor at Zhejiang University. She is also a member of the Chinese Design Ergonomics Technical Committee and a member of the Technical Committee on CAD and Graphics. Her research is mainly focused on the human–computer interface and related cognitive ergonomic evaluation.

Xiaoteng Tang

Xiaoteng Tang is a PhD candidate in design science at the college of computer science and technology, Zhejiang University. His research interests include applying cognitive psychology to human–computer interactions and exploring how to use design methods to improve user experience.

Ying Zhao

Ying Zhao is currently a professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering, Central South University. He obtained his PhD degree in Computer Application Technology from Central South University in 2014. His main research interests include information visualization and visual analytics.

Tengyu Huang

Tengyu Huang is a master’s degree candidate in the school of art and archeology at Zhejiang University. He majors in ergonomics and psychology and his research interests include applying cognitive psychology to human–computer interactions and providing suggestions for interaction design.

Ran Qian

Ran Qian is a master’s degree candidate for interactive design at Zhejiang University. Her research interests include interaction design, human–computer interaction, and ergonomics. She explores how to apply cognitive ergonomics to human–computer interaction.

Jiayi Zhang

Jiayi Zhang is currently working toward a PhD degree at Zhejiang University. Her research interests include user cognition behavior analysis and user-centered visualization design.

Wei Chen

Wei Chen is a professor in State Key Lab of CAD&CG at Zhejiang University, P.R. China. He current served in many leading conferences and journals, like IEEE PacificVIS steering committee, ChinaVIS steering committee, and article co-chairs of IEEE PacificVIS, IEEE LDAV, and ACM SIGGRAPH Asia VisSym.

Xiaosong Wang

Xiaosong Wang is a professor in the School of Arts and Archaeology at Zhejiang University. He obtained Meisterschüler at the Berlin University of the Arts. His current research interests include art and visual experience design.