Towards determinants of user-intuitive web interface signs

Abstract

User interfaces of web applications encompass a number of objects like navigation links, buttons, icons, labels, thumbnails, symbols, etc. which are defined in this paper as interface signs. Designing interface signs to be intuitive to the users is widely accepted to have a significant effect on enhancing web usability. Interface signs design principles are semiotics by nature, as semiotics is the doctrine of signs. Thus, the fundamental objective of this study is to reveal the determinants of user-intuitive interface signs for enhancing web usability from a semiotics perspective. To attain this research objective, an extensive user study was conducted with twenty six participants following a semi-structured interview approach. The preliminary results provide a number of determinants and their attributes to interpret properly the meaning of interface signs. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.