A new method to analyze visual efficiency in interactive web environment

Abstract

Interactive web interfaces are widely used, yet users often struggle to discover important and useful information. Psychologists have pointed out that in the process of human visual perception, the global topological characteristics of objects will be perceived first. In this study, we propose a cognitive experiment system to explore what object properties affect visual efficiency in interactive web environments. Our experimental results showed that, first, if a small number of colors are allocated to different objects, these objects could be more effectively memorized than no color or too many colors. Second, in static single-page, different topology structures will not cause apparently different visual attraction, however, topological structural differences could be stronger memorized. Third, in dynamic HTML, the motion changes will induce stronger visual attention and memory intensity, than their own topology changes. Subsequently, we verified the feasibility of the experiment system in real webpages and demonstrated that the above results can theoretically guide better web interaction design works with less cognitive load of users, higher operation efficiency and more natural user experience. In addition, some design reference suggestions are also provided in our study.