The concreteness of searching module icons and their effectiveness in digital library applications
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-10-2017-0227 |
| Date | 01 October 2018 |
| Published date | 01 October 2018 |
| Pages | 800-810 |
| Author | Sanaz Rahrovani,Mahdieh Mirzabeigi,Javad Abbaspour |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
The concreteness of searching
module icons and their
effectiveness in digital
library applications
Sanaz Rahrovani,Mahdieh Mirzabeigi and Javad Abbaspour
Department of Knowledge and Information Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz,
Islamic Republic of Iran
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to investigate the relationshipbetween the concreteness of searching module
icons and theireffectiveness in Iranian digital library applications.
Design/methodology/approach –This study was a correlational survey whoseparticipants consisted
of two groups, namely, users and experts. The former consisted of 174 users, all of whom were included
because of their scarcity, and the latterincluded ten experts of knowledge and information science. First, the
effective and non-effective icons were identified by users. Then, their concreteness was investigated by the
expert participants.
Findings –The results of the study showed a significantrelationship between the concreteness of icons and
their effectiveness, meaning that the more concrete, the more effective the icon was, and vice versa.
Furthermore, it was shown that the effective icons were representational and semi-abstract, whereas non-
effectiveones were very abstract.
Practical implications –The designers, especially digital library practitioners, should use icons that
distinguish themselvesas effective icons, and avoid using non-effective ones. It is suggestedthat they apply
representationalicons more.
Social implications –The designers of mobile interfaces and public environments, such as social
networks, transportation systemsand so forth, can use icons in their user interfaces that are more effective
when theyare perceived with more concreteness.
Originality/value –The investigation of the relation between the concreteness of icons and their
effectivenessmay help determine effective and non-effectiveicons. It can also be of help to designers to satisfy
user needs and improvetheir site’s performance through using effectiveicons.
Keywords Digital libraries, Effectiveness, Concreteness, Digital library applications
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Since the early 1970s, there has been an increased tendency to display information in the
form of graphical symbols in applications. These represent the emergence of a second
generation of user interface in which users have dealt with different applications in which
icons have played an importantrole in their user interface.
Icons have some unique features and capabilities, such as being appealing to users,
being language independent and presenting a large body of information in a small
space. This has caused widespread use of icons in the user interface of different
graphical systems, especially digital library applications. However, poorly designed
icons not only lose their potential advantages but also cause obstacles to arise in using
the system (Carr, 1992;Huang et al., 2002). Therefore, much research has been
EL
36,5
800
Received3 November 2017
Revised17 February 2018
Accepted5 March 2018
TheElectronic Library
Vol.36 No. 5, 2018
pp. 800-810
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-10-2017-0227
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