Graphic Icon and Information Presentation Types of Hover Feedback Designs on the User Interface of Shopping Websites

The usability of the user interface for shopping websites is a very important design issue pertinent to the user experience. Graphic icons, as a visual presentation aid, provide an excellent interactive experience to the users while interacting with the user interface. The purpose of this study was to explore the usability of graphic icons and information presentation types in the operation of shopping websites, and propose design suggestions for future improvements. A 2 x 2 mixed factorial design was planned to help explore whether the graphic icons (i.e., presence or absence) and different information presentation types (i.e. plain text information and information visualization) may affect users’ task performance and questionnaire of the System Usability Scale (SUS). The experiment adopted the convenience sampling method. A total of 20 participants were recruited to take part in the experiment. The experimental data were collected regarding the participant’s task performance and questionnaire of the System Usability Scale (SUS), as well as semi-structured interviews. The generated results revealed that: (1) Graphic icons significantly affect users’ task performance. The presence of graphic icons improves users’ task performance more than the absence of graphic icons in plain text information. However, the result is opposite in the condition of information visualization. (2) The analysis of SUS showed a significant interaction effect between the graphic icons and the information presentation types. (3) The presence of graphic icons can significantly provide more efficiency than the absence of graphic icons in plain text information. Nonetheless, the result is opposite in the condition of information visualization. It is hoped that the results generated from this study can be a good design reference for future Website designers.Keywords: Shopping website; Mouse hover; Icon symbol; Information visualization; SUS