Text vs visual metaphor in mobile interfaces for novice user interaction¹

Issue title: 16th International Conference on Electronic Publishing – ELPUB 2012 – Social Shaping of Digital Publishing: Exploring the Interplay between Culture and Technology

Guest editors: Ana BaptistaGuest Editor, Peter LindeGuest Editor, Niklas LavessonGuest Editor and Miguel A. BritoGuest Editor

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Gatsou, Chrysoula^{a; *} | Politis, Anastasios^b | Zevgolis, Dimitrios^a

Affiliations: [a] School of Applied Arts, Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece | [b] Graphic Arts Technology Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, TEI of Athens, Athens, Greece

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Chrysoula Gatsou, Botasi 25, 18537, Piraeus, Greece. E-mail: cgatsou@teiath.gr.

Note: [1] Paper also published in the Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Electronic Publishing, ISBN 978-1-61499-064-2.

Abstract: This paper explores the effectiveness, efficiency and ease of use of two alternative interface interactions in a mobile tablet application. More specifically, the study employs a navigation task which novice users were required to complete by means of two types of main menu button, one utilizing text and the other utilizing a visual metaphor. Furthermore, little evidence exists on the effect of the use of metaphor on users of various ages and levels of computer experience. Our results show that young users prefer buttons that display a visual metaphor in the form of an icon, in contrast to older participants, who preferred the button that employed text. They also show that the users' performance is dependent upon age.

Keywords: Mobile tablet, visual metaphor, interface, interaction design, novice user

DOI: 10.3233/ISU-2012-0657

Journal: Information Services & Use, vol. 31, no. 3-4, pp. 271-279, 2011