[publication] The XAOS Metric – Understanding Visual Complexity as measure of usability

Our publication about “The XAOS Metric – Understanding Visual Complexity as measure of usability” held at the 6th Symposium (USAB 2010) of the Workgroup HCI&UE of the Austrian Computer Society in Carinthia (Southern Austria). The slides are already available here.

Abstract:

The visual complexity of an interface is a crucial factor for usability, since it influences the cognitive load and forms expectations about the subjacent software or system. In this paper we propose a novel method that uses entropy, structure and functions, to calculate the visual complexity of a website. Our method is evaluated against a well known approach of using the file size of color jpeg images for determining visual complexity. Both methods were applied on a dataset consisting of images of 30 different websites. These websites were also evaluated with a web survey. We found a strong correlation for both methods on subjective ratings of visual complexity and structure. This suggests both methods to be reliable for determination of visual complexity.

Reference:Stickel, C.; Ebner, M.; Holzinger, A. (2010) The XAOS Metric: Understanding Visual Complexity as measure of usability. Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science LNCS 6389. – in: Human-Computer Interaction in Work & Learning, Life & Leisure, Lecture Notes in Computer Science LNCS 6389., pp. 278 – 290