Michael DeVries

Sr. User Experience Researcher and Analyst
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 | Heuristic Evaluations | Measuring Experience
 | Leading UX | Usability Testing
Icon Design Testing Constructs
 Measuring User Experience of Icon Design

Overview

Design of the SprintPCS.com web site included, at that point at least, a series of icons throughout the UI. The usability team wished to set a high standard for the both an icon's "performance" and the customers' aesthetic pleasure for them. In some cases, the icons were expected to be used with their labels, and in others without. Passing the test of stand alone recognition was of primary concern. While use of the icon at the site with a label and context cues provided by the site would assist with understanding the icons, testing was deemed critical to the project. Two sets of icons were designed and tested.


Research Design

The key pieces of the research design are concerned with measuring the icon "success." "Success" was operationally defined this way:
  • Participant's ability to provide an accurate name for the icon. Accuracy was subject to identifying a word well within the intended metaphor. For example, for a "Home," icon, "Front Page," would be an acceptable match, while "A house" would not.
  • Participant's ability to read a task and assign it to the intended icon. For example, match "Pay your bill," to the "Invoice" icon.
  • Participant's preference for one aesthetic treatment of the icons to another. First, the participant was asked to pick a preference between one "Home" icon and another, and then look at all of the icons from one set v. the other and to pick a preferred set.
  • The order of these measures was in the order as they are presented above in order to maintain the least level of information given to a participant as they went through each measure. Comments were collected anytime participants had doubts.

Accomplishments

As with other projects, the main accomplishment was working together as a team to arrive at an actionable solution. Working with Visual Designers is always a pleasure given that they are endowed with an amazing gift, and it is fun to provide the core of what is needed in a visual design, per the user needs, and then give them the freedom of their talents to do what they do best, albeit all too often under incredible standards compliance limitations.

Part of the data is shown by the table below. Some of it is cryptic, and is left intentionally so, but what you can notice is the color coding behind each of the icons that demonstrates that some icons "succeeded" (green background) while others did not (red background).




Building on That

I have used this method on more than one occasion. It is great to have figured out a methodology that works time and time again. It isn't that this method drives to one, unequivocal answer. It is that the research bears out the user interactions, experiences, and emotional responses, and bring the business owner and designer to the table, driving them towards what needs to be, and away from what shouldn't.


Skills
  • Identifying useful means of evaluating user experiences
  • Usability testing
  • Data synthesis over multiple data types, both quantitative and qualitative
  • Team collaboration
  • Delivering useable design guidance in the midst of a complex question

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Copyright 2010 Michael DeVries