The Influence of Icon Background Colors and Icon Symbols on Menu Item Selection for Smartphone

Abstract

Pictorial-based designs are common for smartphone menu patterns; and the use of icons is prevalent. Icon symbols and icon background colors are two variables that contribute to icon usability. Using pictorial symbol has been a standard for icon design but using textual symbol has become more common [1]. Icon background colors also contribute to icon usability. Two common design decisions of background colors of a set of icons: multicolor, and one-color. Presently, no experimental research has been conducted to examine whether these the two variables influenced menu item selection on smartphone. This study investigated whether icon background colors and icon symbols affect menu selection time and satisfaction. A two-way ANOVA indicated that there were significant main effects of both icon background color and icon symbol, as well as an interaction effect of the two variables on menu selection time.