The Effect of Icon Entropy, Icon Concreteness and Time on Human Selection Accuracy

This paper reports on an experimental study that included engineering faculty undergraduates (n = 400) to measure the effect of icon entropy and icon concreteness on selection accuracy within time constraint conditions (15 seconds, 10 seconds, and 5 seconds). The research was undertaken as an exploratory tool to study the potential effects and interactions of entropy, which has been poorly studied as a possible factor in icon selection outcomes despite existing knowledge that entropy is perceivable by humans and can influence their behaviors. This may be particularly important in small-screen computing where icon size and resolution may pose a challenge for perception, and where entropy may interfere further by introducing high salience. Results showed that conditions of high entropy resulted in lower categorization accuracy for both high and low concreteness icons. However, these differences were only significant under the strictest time constraint (5 seconds).