The Effects of Icon Characteristics and Metaphors on the Recognition of Icons by Students With Different Knowledge Structures

Icons are widely used to communicate information in graphical user interfaces, and it is essential for designers to understand how users recognize and interpret them. This study investigates the impact of university students’ knowledge structures on icon usability. It examines the effects of icon metaphors (appearance, symbolic, relational, arbitrary) and icon characteristics (concreteness, abstractness) on icon recognition. One hundred participants from the liberal arts and sciences were tested (N =50). The test parameters included form recognition rate, functional accuracy rate, and response time. The results indicated that university students’ knowledge structures influenced the recognition of icon characteristics, with liberal arts students preferring concrete icons and science students preferring abstract icons. However, differences in knowledge structure had no significant effect on icon metaphor recognition. Furthermore, the liberal arts and science students showed some differences in recognizing specific combinations of icon characteristics and metaphors. These findings suggest that icon characteristics are influenced by knowledge structure, whereas metaphor recognition is more dependent on cultural structure. Specific combinations of icon characteristics and metaphors can significantly improve icon usability. The implications of these findings suggest new ways for graphical interface icons to enhance usability.