About

On average, each user installs 65 applications (nowadays even more) on their mobile device's home screen, according to Flurry. Although most operating systems allow users to place only 4 to 5 favourite applications in the dock, users tend to add numerous applications on the home screen. In this research project, I conducted a literature review and exploratory fieldwork, revealing the phenomenon of choice overload in smartphone home screens.

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What is Choice Overload?

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Users are often attracted to having a wide range of options, and research suggests that having too many choices can actually be counterproductive. Large choice sets have been shown to increase choice deferral and reduce choice satisfaction. This phenomenon is known as choice overload. When individuals experience high levels of choice overload, they are more likely to feel dissatisfied and less confident in their decisions and are more prone to experiencing regret.

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Users can easily get distracted when they are overloaded with a multitude of images, buttons, and features on your interface. By keeping it simple and clean, you can help your users focus on what's important and guide them towards achieving their goals with ease.

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Aim

In this research, I aim to address the issue of choice overload on smartphone home screens by incorporating the principle of progressive disclosure into what I call "progressive disclosure options." This research focuses on enhancing the user experience in managing app choices on mobile devices.

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As part of my research, I developed two prototypes called "Prior Disclosure Icons" and "Subsequent Disclosure Icons." These prototypes were strategically designed to capture users' attention individually. By leveraging users' preattentive function, the prototypes aim to facilitate the recognition of default options.

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Visual Search

Visual analysis is a two-stage process that involves an initial preattentive phase where basic features are processed in a spatial manner, followed by a subsequent stage that requires focused attention to combine these features into coherent objects.

Researchers have identified two primary types of visual search tasks. Treisman and Gelade satre 'Single feature search' and 'Conjunction search'. In the case of Single feature search, distinguishable features can be detected through Parallel Search, even when not actively attended to. Treisman referred to this unattended stage as the Preattentive stage.

The human visual system swiftly and automatically categorises visual elements into regions and properties by performing simple computations in parallel across an image, which is called Preattentive Processing. To gather detailed information from multiple regions, our eyes move rapidly, switching between brief stationary periods and quick shifts to new locations during momentary visual blindness.

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The brain has feature detectors, which are groups or individual neurons specialised in identifying significant stimuli. These feature detectors are sensitive to eight primary preattentive variables: colour hue, position and alignment, colour brightness, orientation, colour saturation, size, texture, and shape.

Prototype

This study explored the concept of progressive disclosure options, and I applied this concept to smartphone home screen icons via the visual feature appearance by time delay.

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Two prototypes were developed: Prototype 1 featured "Prior Disclosure Icons," and Prototype 2 introduced "Second Priority Disclosure Icons" to extend the effect of progressive disclosure. When the number of "prior disclosure icons" displayed exceeds 4, "subsequent disclosure icons" will be displayed separately. For example, 3+1 (4 icons), 3+2 (5 icons), 3+3 (6 icons), and 3+4 (7 icons).

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Prototype 1 - Prior Disclosure Icons

To create a progressive disclosure effect for the home page icons, we came up with the idea of using prior disclosure icons. We selected one to seven prior disclosure icons for recommendation options from 24 icons on the home screen. The number of icons chosen and the time frame for their appearance were based on the limited working memory capacity. In 1956, Miller suggested that short-term memory has a capacity limit known as the "magical number seven." To accommodate this, we set the time frame for prior disclosure icons to 1000/1500/2000/2500ms.

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Testing Method

Participants were recruited from three age groups - young, middle-aged, and elderly - to evaluate how well they could recognise 1 to 7 prior disclosure icons on the home screen. They were given a set of tasks that required them to recognise these icons within different timeframes - 1000ms, 1500ms, 2000ms, and 2500ms. Each participant was assigned 28 random tasks in total. The recognition test assessed their ability to identify icons from a predetermined list.

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Findings

According to the result, the optimum number of prior disclosure icons on the home screen is preferably 3, especially when considering older users. The study also found that for most subjects, 1500ms prior disclosure was good enough to recognise 3 icons, whilst 80% of the subjects recognised 4 icons.

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Among young users, 56% of the subjects recognised 5 icons. Furthermore, 2000ms prior disclosure gave a significant boost to 80% of the young users in recognising 5 icons.

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However, older users were only capable of recognising a maximum of 3 icons and required 2000ms prior disclosure or longer.

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Prototype 2 - Second Priority Disclosure Icons

The "Two Steps Progressive Disclosure" concept was introduced to enhance the visibility of prior disclosure icons on the home screen. It involved the incorporation of additional "Second Priority Disclosure Icons" that offered users 1 to 4 subsequent disclosure icons following the initial step of disclosure. This approach aimed to enhance the effect of progressive disclosure, reducing the visual search load for users.

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The prototype involved selecting 4 to 7 prior disclosure icons from a pool of 24 home screen icons. For the 4-icon prototype, 3 icons were disclosed initially, with the fourth designated as a "second priority disclosure icon." In the 5-icon prototype, 2 icons were set as "second priority disclosure icons," and so on for the 6 and 7-icon prototypes. The complete time periods for the two steps of prior disclosure icons were set to 2000 and 2500ms.

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Testing Method

During the usability test, which aimed to increase the number of recognisable recommendation options that users can identify on the home screen, 5 older adults were examined.

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Each subject was given 4 tasks of "two steps progressive disclosure", which included between 4 to 7 prior disclosure icons. All tasks involved presenting 3 prior disclosure icons in the first step for either 1500ms or 2000ms, followed by another 1 to 4 "second prior disclosure icons" in the second step.

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Findings

After applying additional "second priority disclosure icons", users were able to effectively recognise more prior disclosure icons on the home screen. Among older adults, the maximum number of "two-step progressive disclosure options" that could be recognised within a 2000ms time frame was 4 (disclosed by 3+1). The onset of two-step progressive disclosure options was preferably 1500ms for the prior disclosure icons followed by 500ms for the "second prior disclosure icons". The alternative time frame of 2000ms for the prior disclosure icons followed by 500ms for the "second prior disclosure icons" did not result in a significant improvement in the recognisable number of prior disclosure icons.

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Key Takeaway

1. Progressive disclosure options effectively reduce choice overload, enhancing icon search on the home screen. An optimal number of 3 "prior disclosure icons" is recommended, with specific time frames for different user age groups.
2. 'Second Priority Disclosure Icons' significantly improve the recognisability of prior disclosure icons among older users, with the first icon achieving a 90% legibility rate within a 2000ms time frame.
3. Implementing two-step progressive disclosure options shows potential for enhancing legibility rates among older users, offering valuable insights for improving usability.