Comparing the perspicacity, appropriateness and preference of web browser icons with Chinese users

Abstract

This paper compares the perspicacity, appropriateness and preference of web browser icons from leading software providers with those of a culture-specific design. This online study was conducted in Taiwan and involved 103 participants, who were given three sets of web browser icons to review, namely Microsoft Internet Explorer, Macintosh Safari and culturally specific icons created using the Culture-Centred Design methodology. The findings of the study show that all three sets have generally high recognition rates in the region of 80%, but that some icon functions (e.g. Go/Visit and Favourite) in all three sets have poor recognition rates in the region of 60% and are considered inappropriate and below the ISO threshold of success.

Keywords:

• web browser icons
• perspicacity
• Chinese
• culturalisation
• user interface design

Acknowledgement

This study was conducted under grants provided by the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC 96-2221-E-150-037 & NSC 97-2221-E-150-048). The authors would like to thank the NSC for their support.