Set Of Icons Research Articles

Emoji

Abstract Online users devise different strategies and techniques to make up for the absence of physical bodies in online communications, one of which is using emojis. Emojis are a diverse set of small images, symbols, or icons, standardized by the Unicode Consortium for utilization in electronic communication platforms. Their primary role is to effectively convey the emotional attitude of the writer, succinctly provide information, and playfully communicate messages. This article posits that bodily emojis (emojis portraying a body gesture or facial expression) are a form of digital embodiment. Their usage, thus, creates a form of digital performance. Emojis appear as a screen body in a space that lacks the physical one. Furthermore, I suggest that this body could be described as aesthetically Baroque. My proposition is that emojis exhibit Baroque characteristics such as dynamic and exaggerated forms and decorate texts. Emojis share similarities with the appearance and function of the Baroque body both in Baroque visual art and Baroque dance.

Research on visual size and visual alignment optimization of icon set design

The industry's relevant guidelines on icon design point out that in the design of icon sets, designers should adjust the size and position of each icon, instead of simply unifying the size and position by icon bounding box, to ensure consistency in visual size and visual alignment. However, existing guidelines provide vague answers on specifically adjusting different icons, leaving designers to rely on subjective experience and intuition for adjustments. To explore the general pattern of visual size and alignment between different icons, we first measured the visual size and alignment of different icons through subjective experiments, analyzed the data to find the influencing factors. Next, we constructed a visual size optimization model composed of these factors and proposed an optimization method based on the reference square. Then, we measured the difference between icons’ visual alignment and bounding box alignment through experiments. Finally, we used expert evaluation to test the model's effectiveness in visual size consistency. We have reached the following conclusions: (1) For icons with the same convex hull, the perceived visual size is consistent; (2) To unify the icon visual size using a reference square as the standard, there are two factors affecting the visual size adjustment: the convex hull area of the icon and the convex hull area outside the bounds of the reference square. (3) The visual size optimization model helps slightly improve the visual alignment consistency of icons. These conclusions and the visual size optimization model contribute to establishing more rigorous icon design standards and developing plugins to enhance the quality and efficiency of icon design.

Inputs to optimize risk communication: testing preferences in icons for emergencies

Disaster Risk Management (DRM) introduces a paradigm change from mitigating impacts to preparedness. Communication becomes fundamental for a safe experience. Designing information has a decisive role in optimizing the experience. Following their principles, messages can be optimized for emergencies. Everyday information tools appear to be less effective during and after an emergency. Icons constitute a paradigm of visual communication, however, usually these are not evidenced in their performance. This paper presents the testing process of an open-access icon set for emergencies, specifically the preferences test. 283 responses evidence how participants associate representations with given concepts. Communication based on icons contributes to establishing preferences, constituting a support for the communication of risk. Integrating communication to DRM contributes to an effective articulation of risks. Results are discussed as three insights: (1) Familiarity, (2) Performance, (3) Knowledge for reducing risks. Information design contributes to facilitating such a process.

The effect of icon patterns on user attention and memory

This study explored the impact of icon patterns, position, composition, and congruence on user attention and recognition memory for single-row icon sets. Four patterns of an icon set were experimentally tested: plane congruent (plane-plane-plane, PPP), plane incongruent (line-plane-line, LPL), line congruent (line-line-line, LLL), and line incongruent (plane-line-plane, PLP). For attention, this study found no significant difference between LLL and PPP. Furthermore, the combination of plane-based and line-based icons (LPL) was most suitable for user attention. For recognition memory, icon sets with plane-based targets (PPP or LPL) were more recognizable than those with line-based targets (LLL or PLP), and PLP was the least recognizable. Overall, the LPL pattern best attracted attention and enhanced subsequent memory. For evenly distributed cognition, a PPP pattern was recommended. The findings of this study can provide guidance for designing graphical user interfaces with multiple icons (e.g., navigation bars and tab bars).

Palette‐Based and Harmony‐Guided Colorization for Vector Icons

AbstractColorizing icon is a challenging task, even for skillful artists, as it involves balancing aesthetics and practical considerations. Prior works have primarily focused on colorizing pixel‐based icons, which do not seamlessly integrate into the current vector‐based icon design workflow. In this paper, we propose a palette‐based colorization algorithm for vector icons without the need for rasterization. Our algorithm takes a vector icon and a five‐color palette as input and generates various colorized results for designers to choose from. Inspired by the common icon design workflow, we developed our algorithm to consist of two steps: generating a colorization template and performing the palette‐based color transfer. To generate the colorization templates, we introduce a novel vector icon colorization model that employs an MRF‐based loss and a color harmony loss. The color harmony loss encourages the alignment of the resulting color template with widely used harmony templates. We then map the predicted colorization template to chroma‐like palette colors to obtain diverse colorization results. We compare our results with those generated by previous pixel‐based icon colorization methods and validate the effectiveness of our algorithm by evaluations in both qualitative and quantitative measurements. Our method enables icon designers to explore diverse colorization results for a single icon using different color palettes while also efficiently evaluating the suitability of a color palette for a set of icons.

EvIcon: Designing High‐Usability Icon with Human‐in‐the‐loop Exploration and IconCLIP

AbstractInterface icons are prevalent in various digital applications. Due to limited time and budgets, many designers rely on informal evaluation, which often results in poor usability icons. In this paper, we propose a unique human‐in‐the‐loop framework that allows our target users, that is novice and professional user interface (UI) designers, to improve the usability of interface icons efficiently. We formulate several usability criteria into a perceptual usability function and enable users to iteratively revise an icon set with an interactive design tool, EvIcon. We take a large‐scale pre‐trained joint image‐text embedding (CLIP) and fine‐tune it to embed icon visuals with icon tags in the same embedding space (IconCLIP). During the revision process, our design tool provides two types of instant perceptual usability feedback. First, we provide perceptual usability feedback modelled by deep learning models trained on IconCLIP embeddings and crowdsourced perceptual ratings. Second, we use the embedding space of IconCLIP to assist users in improving icons' visual distinguishability among icons within the user‐prepared icon set. To provide the perceptual prediction, we compiled IconCEPT10K, the first large‐scale dataset of perceptual usability ratings over 10,000 interface icons, by conducting a crowdsourcing study. We demonstrated that our framework could benefit UI designers' interface icon revision process with a wide range of professional experience. Moreover, the interface icons designed using our framework achieved better semantic distance and familiarity, verified by an additional online user study.

Present Pasts of Colonial Modernity: Embroideries by Lucie Kamuswekera

Present Pasts of Colonial Modernity: Embroideries by Lucie Kamuswekera

Visualizing Uncertainty in Hurricane Forecasts with Animated Risk Trajectories

Abstract Hurricane forecasts are often communicated through visualizations depicting the possible future track of the storm. The cone of uncertainty (COU) is a commonly used visualization, but the graphic is prone to misinterpretation such as thinking only locations contained within the cone’s boundary are at risk. In this study, we investigated the utility of conveying hurricane forecast tracks using a set of animated icons, each representing an instance of a possible storm path. We refer to this new visualization as animated risk trajectories (ARTs). We measured nonexperts’ perception of risk when viewing simplified, hypothetical hurricane forecasts presented as ARTs or COUs. To measure perception of risk for each visualization type, we designed experiments to have participants make decisions to evacuate individual towns at varying distances from the most likely forecast path of a storm. The ARTs led to greater risk perception in areas that fell beyond the cone’s boundaries. Nonexperts’ interpretation of risk was impacted by the visual properties of the ARTs, such as the distribution of the icons, including their density, and whether the distribution was unimodal or bimodal. This supports the suggestion that ARTs can have value in communicating spatial–temporal uncertainty. Significance Statement Because of the inherent uncertainties in weather forecasts and emergency management planning, communicating hurricane risk to the public is a unique challenge for decision-makers. Our study investigated the effect of conveying uncertainty in hurricane forecast tracks using a distribution of animated icons [animated risk trajectories (ARTs)], which correspond to potential hurricane tracks that evolve over time. This visualization was compared with a simplified cone-of-uncertainty graphic, such as those used by the National Hurricane Center. We found that ARTs offered flexibility in conveying information about hurricane risk, such as the magnitude of the risk via the number of icons and the location of the risk via the distribution of icons.

Nudge and bias in subjective ratings? The role of icon sets in determining ratings of icon characteristics

Subjective ratings have been central to the evaluation of icon characteristics. The current study examined biases in ratings in relation to the context in which icons are presented. Context was manipulated between participants, with some groups rating icon sets with limited variability, and others rating icon sets with wide variability. It was predicted that the context created by the icon set would influence participants’ ratings; when the range of icons was limited, this would create bias given participants’ expectation that a full range of icon values was being presented. Six key icon characteristics were rated, which were visual (visual complexity, appeal), affective (valence, feelings), and semantic (concreteness, semantic distance). Some icon characteristics were susceptible to rating bias while others were not. Where subjective judgements were being made of visual icon characteristics (appeal/complexity) and highly concrete icons which were very pictorial, there was clear evidence of substantial bias in ratings. The same susceptibility to bias was not evident when ratings relied solely on learned semantic associations or were associated with the emotional attributions made to icons. The dynamic nature of the ratings bias was demonstrated when the rating context was changed without participants’ knowledge. When participants rated further blocks of icons providing a different range of the to-be-rated characteristic, this resulted in rapid and dramatic changes in rating behaviour. These findings demonstrate the need for representative sampling of icon characteristics to avoid ratings bias. Practically, this is important when determining the usability of newly designed icon sets in order to avoid over-valuing or under-valuing of key characteristics.

Capturing Water, Culture and Heritage through Icons

Humans have engaged with water in multiple ways, creating physical structures – such as buildings, cities, infrastructures and landscapes–and socio-cultural manifestations – for example, institutions, laws, artistic practices and rituals. They have transformed natural settings in keeping with climate and energy conditions. To understand the diverse conditions of water spaces and heritage, we have created a set of icons to categorize tangible and intangible objects and practices related to water. The icons help us identify different scales, functions and forms of both water management- related heritage objects, as well as generic water-related structures. The categories identified are suggestions and not conclusive or mutually exclusive.

Icon Design for Representing Safety-Critical Aircraft Functions to Support Supervisory Control of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems

(1) Background: The transition from conventional to remote aircraft control will necessitate the development of novel human machine interfaces. When we consider the pilot interface, icons are traditionally used to associate meanings with functions on the flight deck, allowing the pilot to assimilate information effectively. Using established icon design principles, 18 icons, representing key safety-critical functions related to the operation of an aircraft, were designed for integration into a ground station. Pilots were then asked to evaluate these icons based on established icon characteristics. (2) Method: In an online questionnaire study, 29 pilots rated the icons on the icon characteristics of concreteness, complexity, familiarity, meaningfulness, and semantic distance. Alongside these metrics, concept and name agreement were captured for the icon set. (3) Results: Analysis indicated good icon-function fit overall. The findings show that emphasizing concreteness and familiarity improves icon-function fit, as long as the familiarity is directed at aviation-related artifacts. Further, concept agreement appears to be a better measure of icon-function fit in comparison to name agreement. (4) Conclusion: Most of the designed icons were well suited to represent their intended meaning. However, this study emphasizes the need for dedicated standardized icon characteristic norms for aviation systems.

Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Religion and the Problem of Racial Innocence

Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Religion and the Problem of Racial Innocence

Transcript Anatomization with Multi-Linguistic and Speech Synthesis Features

Handwriting Detection is a process or potential of a computer program to collect and analyze comprehensible input that is written by hand from various types of media such as photographs, newspapers, paper reports etc. Handwritten Text Recognition is a sub-discipline of Pattern Recognition. Pattern Recognition is refers to the classification of datasets or objects into various categories or classes. Handwriting Recognition is the process of transforming a handwritten text in a specific language into its digitally expressible script represented by a set of icons known as letters or characters. Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech using Machine Learning based software and audio output based computer hardware. While there are many systems which convert normal language text in to speech, the aim of this paper is to study Optical Character Recognition with speech synthesis technology and to develop a cost effective user friendly image based offline text to speech conversion system using CRNN neural networks model and Hidden Markov Model. The automated interpretation of text that has been written by hand can be very useful in various instances where processing of great amounts of handwritten data is required, such as signature verification, analysis of various types of documents and recognition of amounts written on bank cheques by hand.

Mapping Bodies, Designing Feminist Icons

Bodies are nuanced, fluid, and political—often combining forms of intersecting and experiential identities. Nevertheless, bodies are frequently missing from maps altogether or, when they are included on maps, they are reduced to points, lines, and polygons. Focusing on iconography, I explore the depiction of bodies in map symbolization through a feminist lens. I apply a feminist semiotic analysis to thirty-eight Maki icons to problematize the ways in which bodies are depicted, abstracted, or erased. I analyze icon symbolization, particularly the presence/absence of bodily forms, the presence/absence of an embodied object, and the icons’ iconicity. My feminist analysis reveals the underlying silences, defaults, and power dynamics within the Maki icon set. I call mapmakers to rethink the depictions of bodies in icons—and the role of “universal” icon sets, more broadly—through a feminist lens. I offer design opportunities as a starting point for such an endeavor.

Individualized sleep promotion in acute care hospitals: managing specific factors that affect patient sleep.

Improving sleep for hospitalized patients is an essential clinical need. Compared to the traditional "one-size-fits-all" interventions designed by clinicians for all patients, an individualized strategy engaging patients to identify salient sleep disruptors and seek their input how to address these disruptors are more likely to succeed. Followed by our work of developing the Factors Affecting Inpatient Sleep (FAIS) scale, in this report we developed a set of icons illustrating 14 common sleep disruptors on the FAIS scale, and proposed behavioral sleep promotion tips addressing each sleep disruptor. The set of icons and sleep promotion tips were built into the mobile health (mHealth) tool SLEEPKit, which was the start of our endeavor using mHealth technology to support individualized sleep promotion. A participatory iterative approach including feedbacks from patients, family members, and clinicians was used to develop and refine the icons and sleep promotion tips. Focus groups were used to inform the initial development and to brainstorm for the refinement of the icons. Individual interviews with patients and clinicians were conducted to validate each version of the icons using a standardized Content Validity Index (CVI) on a 4-point Likert scale, and offered comments and suggestions for improvement. Strategies of sleep promotion were first identified by the literature review, and then enriched by the summary of data from our previous work. Focus groups were conducted in order to learn empirically if the sleep promotion tips on the current version were acceptable to both patients and clinicians, and how they could be improved. Six focus groups were conducted and achieved saturation in suggestions for improvement. A total of 5 patients and 3 family members who served on the Patient/ Family Advisory Council, and 42 nurses who served on the interdisciplinary professional practice committees participated in the focus groups. A total of 75 patients and 50 clinicians offered individual feedback and the CVI test for the icons. Successive two or four phases of iterative icon evaluation and refinement were carried out until the average CVI ratings for each icon achieved 3 and above. The sleep promotion tips were created to demonstrate a collaborative effort between patients and clinicians. To empower patients for bedside communication related to their sleep, examples of communication starters ("Try saying") were included in the tips for patients. By using the participatory iterative approach, these icons for common sleep disturbing factors were understandable by both patients and clinicians, and the sleep promotion tips were perceived to be feasible and effective in the acute care hospital setting. This work moved the individualized sleep promotion forward, and supported the development of a novel mHealth tool for inpatient sleep promotion tailored to individual patient's needs.

Anachronism by Design: Understanding Young Adults’ Perceptions of Computer Iconography

Computer iconography in desktop operating systems and applications has evolved in style but, in many cases, not in substance for decades. For example, in many applications, a 3.5" floppy diskette icon still represents the “Save” function. But many of today's young adult computer users grew up without direct physical experience of floppy diskettes and many of the other objects that are represented by enduring legacy icons. In this article, we describe a multi-part study conducted to gain an understanding of young adults’ perceptions of computer iconography, and to possibly update that iconography based on young adults’ current mental models. To carry out this work, we gathered a set of 39 icons found on common desktop operating systems and applications and also recruited 30 young adults aged 18–22. In the first part of our study, an end-user elicitation study, we asked participants to propose sketches of icons they deemed most appropriate to trigger the functions associated with our selected icons. We elicited a total of 3,590 individual icon sketches and grouped these into a set of participant-generated icons. In the second part of our study, an end-user identification study, we showed participants the 39 icons from current operating systems and asked them to name the computing functions triggered when those icons were selected. We also asked them to identify the real-world objects, if any, those icons represented, and to tell us about their personal experiences with those objects. Finally, we conducted a second identification study with 60 new participants from Amazon's Mechanical Turk on the set of participant-generated icons we obtained from the first part of our study to see how recognizable our young adults’ sketched icons were. Our study results highlight 20 anachronistic icons currently found on desktop operating systems in need of redesign. Our results also show that with increased icon production, the chances for anachronism significantly decrease, supporting the “production principle” in elicitation studies. Furthermore, our results include an updated set of icons derived from our young adult participants. This work contributes an approach to using end-user elicitation to understand users, user interface design, and specifically, icon design.

Perceptual Mapping for Agricultural Marketing Research: Concept and Methodologies

In the agriculture the focus was more on the production of commodity than marketing of it. In the wake of the focus on doubling the income of farmers one of the strategies can be the direct marketing of the produce. It may be possible through the market research, which previously had been in use at very nominal rate, but at present we have systematic market research technique and methodology for market positioning and for the formulation of suitable strategies for the farmers. One of the suitable and systematic marketing research techniques is perceptual mapping. Perceptual maps are often used in marketing to visually study relations between two or more attributes the process of making perceptual map is perceptual mapping. However, in many perceptual maps published in the recent literature it remains unclear what is being shown and how the relations between the points in the map can be interpreted or even what a point represents. The term perceptual map refers to plots obtained by a series of different techniques, such as principal component analysis, (multiple) correspondence analysis, and multidimensional scaling, each needing specific requirements for producing the map and interpreting it. Some of the major flaws of published perceptual maps are omission of reference to the techniques that produced the map, non-unit shape parameters for the map, and unclear labelling of the points. To facilitate this, a small set of simple icons that indicate the rules for correctly interpreting the map. We present several examples, point out flaws and show how to produce better maps.

Recognizing Decision-Making Using Eye Movement: A Case Study With Children.

The use of visual attention for evaluating consumer behavior has become a relevant field in recent years, allowing researchers to understand the decision-making processes beyond classical self-reports. In our research, we focused on using eye-tracking as a method to understand consumer preferences in children. Twenty-eight subjects with ages between 7 and 12 years participated in the experiment. Participants were involved in two consecutive phases. The initial phase consisted of the visualization of a set of stimuli for decision-making in an eight-position layout called Alternative Forced-choice. Then the subjects were asked to freely analyze the set of stimuli, they needed to choose the best in terms of preference. The sample was randomly divided into two groups balanced by gender. One group visualized a set of icons and the other a set of toys. The final phase was an independent assessment of each stimulus viewed in the initial phase in terms of liking/disliking using a 7-point Likert scale. Sixty-four stimuli were designed for each of the groups. The visual attention was measured using a non-obstructive eye-tracking device. The results revealed two novel insights. Firstly, the time of fixation during the last four visits to each stimulus before the decision-making instant allows us to recognize the icon or toy chosen from the eight alternatives with a 71.2 and 67.2% of accuracy, respectively. The result supports the use of visual attention measurements as an implicit tool to analyze decision-making and preferences in children. Secondly, eye movement and the choice of liking/disliking choice are influenced by stimuli design dimensions. The icon observation results revealed how gender samples have different fixation and different visit times which depend on stimuli design dimension. The toy observations results revealed how the materials determinate the largest amount fixations, also, the visit times were differentiated by gender. This research presents a relevant empirical data to understand the decision-making phenomenon by analyzing eye movement behavior. The presented method can be applied to recognize the choice likelihood between several alternatives. Finally, children’s opinions represent an extra difficulty judgment to be determined, and the eye-tracking technique seen as an implicit measure to tackle it.

Can Visual Design Provide Legal Transparency? The Challenges for Successful Implementation of Icons for Data Protection

Design is a key player in the future of data privacy and data protection. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) established by the European Union aims to rebalance the information asymmetry between the organizations that process personal data and the individuals to which that data refers. Machine-readable, standardized icons that present a “meaningful overview of the intended processing” are suggested by the law as a tool to enhance the transparency of information addressed to data subjects. However, no specific guidelines have been provided, and studies on privacy iconography are very few. This article describes research conducted on the creation and evaluation of icons representing data protection concepts. First, we introduce the methodology used to design the Data Protection Icon Set (DaPIS): participatory design methods combined with legal ontologies and machine-readable representations. Second, we discuss some of the challenges that have been faced in the development and evaluation of DaPIS and similar icon sets. Third, we provide some tentative responses and indicate a way forward for evaluation of the effectiveness of privacy icons and their widespread adoption.

Appropriating the Comanche: Hell or High Water and the New Southwest

Abstract Hell or High Water (2016) takes the elegiac mode – the wistful lament for the myth of the Old West – and recasts it as a raucous country song on the dismantling of that myth by twenty-first-century capitalism. In the wake of the Great Recession, director David Mackenzie and screenwriter Taylor Sheridan pair off two iconic sets of Western characters: a couple of down-and-out bank-robbing brothers shadowed by an old, White Texas Ranger and his American-Indian/Mexican-American deputy. The values of the lawmen and the outlaw brothers are not mutually exclusive – each pair shares more with the other than with the new materialistic order around them. The overarching metaphor for men who repeatedly confront the socioeconomic forces pitted against their values is the Comanche, to which several characters lay claim. Hell or High Water gives us both a lament for the myth of the Old West and a tart critique of the film Western and of the real-world exploitation of the region, its people, and the American dream they cling to.