Visual Characteristics’ Inherent Impact

on People’s Strategic Orientation

Therese Dries-Tönnies Magdalena Laib Abstract

Laboratoire Epsylon, Hochschule der Medien, Digitally mediated tasks are becoming an indispensable
Université Montpellier III, Stuttgart, Germany part of our daily life. However, they often suppose
Montpellier, France schuler@hdm-stuttgart.de different kinds of strategies to be solved with success
t.tonnies@gmail.com (e.g., creativity, accuracy). The strategies people use
Nathalie Blanc to for task solving might unintentionally be influenced
Axel Platz Laboratoire Epsylon, by graphic user interfaces’ (GUI) visual characteristics.
Siemens AG, Université Montpellier III, The present research investigates this topic by focusing
Research & Technology Center, Montpellier, France on impacts related to isolated colors and forms. First, a
User Interface Design, nathalie.blanc@univ-montp3.fr word association test showed that specific color and
Munich, Germany form characteristics are associated to ideas of threat or,
axel.platz@siemens.com on the contrary, of comfort. An anagram-solving test
then demonstrated that color and form stimuli influence
Michael Burmester performance differently depending on these
Hochschule der Medien, associations: Participants solved comfort-related
Stuttgart, Germany anagrams faster when presented in combination with
burmester@hdm-stuttgart.de visual stimuli associated to comfort ideas (i.e., orange,
round forms). Conversely, vigilance-related anagrams
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for were solved faster when presented in association with
personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are visual stimuli associated to threat. These findings
not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that
strongly suggest that color and form elements used in
copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights
for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other GUIs can impact user’s approach and sensitivity to
uses, contact the Owner/Author. specific information. Depending on the kind of tasks
Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).
(e.g., demanding creativity or accuracy), the effects
CHI'15 Extended Abstracts, Apr 18-23, 2015, Seoul, Republic of Korea
ACM 978-1-4503-3146-3/15/04. can either support solving or impair it. Further
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2702613.2732915 researches should transfer the present results to
concrete computer mediated tasks.
Introduction
Graphic user interfaces’ (GUI) utilization is nowadays as
widespread as heterogeneous. In fact, digital devices
cover the whole range from entertainment oriented
applications to business software and even controlling
of highly sensitive systems. These different types of
tasks necessarily require adapted strategies to be
handled: Creative and flexible strategies seem suitable
for tasks involving information generating or
interpreting; Conversely, vigilant and detail-oriented
strategies are matching tasks requiring incident
detection and critical data handling.
Classic motivational models (e.g., approach-avoidance
[1], promotion-prevention [6, 7]) distinguish two main
orientation, one favoring creative and risk-affine
behavior (approach, promotion), the other vigilant and
risk-avoidant behavior (avoidance, prevention). [6]
demonstrated that people’s orientation can be
influenced by external cues. For example, verbal cues
related to danger can momentarily trigger the usage of
vigilant strategies (e.g., risk-minimization). It is
commonly accepted that this kind of ideas is also
related to some colors, for example red (i.e., warnings,
errors, danger). Thus, GUIs visual characteristics are
likely to have an impact on people’s strategic
orientation. These uncontrolled effects can either
sustain task-solving by favoring an adapted strategic
approach or, on the contrary, trigger mismatching
strategies.
The present research investigates if form and color
characteristics impact people’s strategic orientation. If
our findings support this hypothesis, consequences on
actual GUI mediated task-solving will be discussed.
Understanding Visual Elements’ Influence
A main characteristic of digitally mediated tasks is their
visual character. In fact, most systems of this kind
transmit information and are controlled via GUIs. Aside
from verbal content, these GUIs are basically composed
of areas (e.g., background, headers, buttons, text-
fields, etc.) which differ in size, form and coloration.
Traditional color research has long demonstrated that
some colors (e.g., paper color, ink color) impact
performance [5, 8]. However, the different studies did
not consensually establish if specific colors are prone to
enhance performance, or, on the contrary, impair it [4,
5]. Regarding human-computer-interaction, only a
couple of researches investigates potential effects on
human-computer-interaction [5]. Although colors (i.e.,
blue, orange, grey) were shown to impact users’
behavior, no real discussion of underlying principles was
proposed.
Regarding forms, different studies related them to fear
processing: Edgy contours are suggested to be
processed as cues of potential threat while round forms
would signal harmlessness [3, 4]. Again, no research
was conducted to investigate effects associated to
GUIs’ “edgy” or “round” characters. In that line, we
propose a different approach and will investigate if
colors and forms can be related to creativity or
accuracy orientations.
Investigating Ideas Associated to Color and
Form
In order to identify colors and forms potentially able to
impact people’s strategic orientation, a word-
association test assessed connotations people
spontaneously relate to some visual items. A
professional designer generated six basic shaped form
items and seven color items (e.g., rectangles with
 differently shaped angles, see figure 1). Participants
(i.e., 12 participants, mean age = 28.3, SD = 1.9)
were randomly presented single form or color items on
a screen and asked to write down their spontaneous
associations (i.e., “at least one or two nouns or
adjectives”). No time restriction was imposed. After
writing down associations related to a specific item,
participants would switch to the next one. A qualitative
analysis provided three categories of associations:
- Cat. 1 with vocabulary related to vigilance (e.g.,
threat, functionality, hardness). The items red,
Slightly round
dark grey, purple as well as the sharp edged
rectangle were associated to this kind of
vocabulary. For example, the dark grey color item
was mainly associated to words such as
“functional” (i.e., 8 words out of 21) or
“threatening” (i.e., 9 words out of 21).
- Cat. 2 with vocabulary related to comfort (e.g.,
Edgy concave
Ed gy strait
Round concave nature, warmness, peace). The items green,
orange and blue as well as the round shaped
rectangle were associated to this kind of
vocabulary. For example, the color orange was
associated to words such as “comfort” (i.e., 9
words out of 23) or “warmness” (i.e., 12 words out
of 23).
- Cat. 0 with neutral vocabulary (e.g., neutral,
Highly round
moderate, average). The items light grey color and
Figure 1: Example of form the slightly round form were associated to this kind
items used as stimuli in the of vocabulary.
word association test
Color and Form’s impact on Performance
The main goal of this study was to investigate if color
and form items could impact participants’ orientation:
It was expected that colors and forms associated to
Cat. 1 would activate a vigilant orientation and make
participants more sensitive for target-words relevant for
safety concern. Conversely, it was expected that colors
and forms associated to Cat. 2 would make participants
more sensitive for comfort related topics.
Methods
The study was splitted in two parts, testing either form
elements or colors. Both experiments followed an
identical procedure, which is why a single description is
provided. Sixty-three students took part in the form
part (40 females, mean age = 25.67, SD = 7.29) and
sixty-six in the color part (39 females, mean age =
24.68, SD = 6.65). The study was hosted on a free
survey-platform (http://www.qualtrics.com) which
provided links to start individual sessions.
Participants had to perform an anagram solving task.
The target words were selected for belonging either to
vigilance related vocabulary (e.g., “error”), to comfort
related vocabulary (e.g., “success”) or for being
neutral1. The anagrams were separately displayed on
backgrounds composed of a specific color or form
stimulus. In order to make results ecologically more
valid, colors were presented as gradients (i.e., same
saturation and hue, different lightness). That way,
results can be associated to families of colors (e.g.,
different shades of orange) rather than one specific
nuance. See figure 2 for examples of color and form
stimuli associated to anagram presentation.
1
Vocabulary was tested on its frequency in the German
language using Leibzig University’s open database
http://wortschatz.uni-leipzig.de/ws_norm/index_wm.php#.
Only identical frequent six letter words were integrated in the
study. Furthermore, a pre-test was used to establish
unanimous association to one of the three categories.

Figure 2. Anagram presented on
the “orange color” background
(top) and on the “slightly round
form” background (bottom).
Participants solved a series of six anagrams (two of
each kind) that were presented with a first stimulus
and than six other anagrams presented with a second
stimulus. Stimuli’s presentation was randomized.
Anagrams’ displaying was semi-random since
identically framed ones were not presented in a row.
The solving time for each kind of correctly solved
anagram was averaged in each condition to create a
vigilance, a comfort and a neutral solving time index
(expressed in seconds).
Results
A first analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed for
the color study with type of anagram (vigilance,
neutral, comfort) as within factor and color (red, dark
grey, purple, light grey, blue, orange and green) as
between factor. First, a main effect of the type of
anagram was detected F[2, 452] = 7.19, p = .001 as
well as a main effect of the factor color F[6, 452] =
2.82, p = .01. As expected, both factors also
interacted: F[12, 452] = 3.76, p < .001. Post hoc
analysis showed significant differences associated to
the colors red (p < .001, prevention anagrams were
solved faster than comfort framed ones), dark grey (p
< .001, vigilance framed anagrams were solved faster
than comfort framed ones) and orange (p < .001,
comfort framed anagrams were solved faster than
vigilance framed ones). In other words, the colors red
and dark-grey facilitated solving of vigilance framed
anagrams while the color orange facilitated solving of
comfort framed anagrams. The other colors were not
associated to differences in solving the three kinds of
anagrams.
Similar patterns of results were observed in the form
study: An analysis of variance was performed with type
of anagrams (vigilance, neutral, comfort) as within
factor and form (edgy, slightly round, highly round) as
between factor. No main effect was detected but the
interaction between both factors was significant: F[12,
409] = 15.77, p < .001. Conformingly to our
predictions, post hoc analysis showed that the edgy
form facilitated solving of vigilance framed anagrams
(p < .001, vigilance anagrams were solved faster than
comfort ones). Conversely, round forms facilitated
solving of comfort framed anagrams (p < .001, comfort
framed anagrams were solved faster than vigilance
framed ones). See Table 1 for result’s detailed
overview.
Discussion and further researches
The present study aimed to link visual characteristics to
specific strategic orientations. It was hypothesized that
some color and form characteristics impact people’s
sensitivity for specific types of information.
The present study’s results supported the hypothesis:
The colors red and dark grey as well as sharp
contoured forms facilitated solving of vigilance framed
target-words which were identified faster than comfort
framed ones. Conversely, the items orange color and
round form facilitated solving of comfort framed target-
words which were identified faster than vigilance
framed ones.
 Type of anagram s
Stim uli Vigilance Com fort
Neutral
fram ed fram ed
Red* 19.24 (5.72) 39.67 (25.98) 50.84 (18.42)

Cat.1 (vigilance) Purple 14.75 (6.24) 31.71 (28.35) 24.19 (20.94)

s Dark grey* 22.48 (6.83) 33.56 (22.54) 55.02 (25.56)

r
o
l Cat. 0 (neutral) Light grey 29.61 (22.70) 31.67 (17.87) 27.61 (22.02)
o
C Blue 27.55 (29.91) 32.25 (23.72) 29.99 (17.98)
Cat.2 (com fort) Green 26.62 (27.82) 37.66 (40.53) 28.12 (26.59)

Orange* 35.41 (6.79) 26.79 (15.97) 16.74 (10.39)

s Cat.1 (vigilance) Sharp-edged* 19.94 (12.84) 27.55 (23.79) 46.78 (30.03)

m Cat. 0 (neutral) Slightly round 28.02 (21.54) 29.31 (19.92) 29.33 (17.37)
r
o
F Cat.2 (com fort) Highly round* 48.54 (36.99) 29.74 (20.58) 21.84 (16.18)

Note: Stimuli associated to significant differences for solving promotion and prevention anagrams are marked with an asterisk.
Standard deviations are given in parentheses.

Table 1: Mean anagram solving times in seconds depending on anagram type and stimuli

These differences in sensitivity can be interpreted in
terms of strategic orientation: People in a vigilant
avoidance orientation are sensitive to information
related to errors, danger and mistakes while those in a
creative approach orientation are sensitive to
information about progress, comfort and development.
In other words, visual characteristics potentially impact
the strategies people employ to handle tasks.
Depending on the type of task (e.g., creative,
accuracy), adapted solving strategies are likely to
support task-handling and enhance performances.
Conversely, the usage of mismatching strategies will
probably impair task-solving.
Obviously, these findings need further investigation.
However, the results already point out that visual
characteristics do have an influence on the way people
process and interact with information. In addition, they
represent, in our opinion, the first step towards more
contextualized and natural researches on one hand, a
base for actual design procedures on the other hand. In
fact, this study’s findings are especially interesting
regarding human-computer-interaction situations: In
fact, digitally assisted task-solving is predominantly
supported by GUIs. The study highlights the fact that
visual characteristics are likely to influence people’s
strategic orientation in an unintended manner. These
effects being uncontrolled, they are as likely to be
supportive as they can be impairing. For example,
some interfaces might unintentionally trigger an
orientation that misfits tasks’ framing.
As a consequence, the present results are suggested to
trigger some awareness about the usage of color and
form in GUI’s. In fact, provided with these trends about
colors’ and forms’ impacts, designers might reconsider
the concrete usage of these characteristics. Indeed,
graphic compositions might benefit from being
considered in dependence of the actual context of
usage: For example, a graphical layout related to a task
that can globally be categorized as demanding precision
and accuracy can be inspired by the present study’s
results: Clearly defined forms and angles as well as
sober and dark color schemes should favor an
orientation matching that task’s nature.
We also propose to relate our study to classic color
researches which to this day, have failed to provide
consensual dependencies between specific colors and
performance [8, 5]. While lots of different settings were
used, the natures of the tasks to solve were globally
not taken into account. Contrary to the broad
assumption, we believe that colors’ facilitating or
hindering impact on performance is unlikely to be linear
(e.g., some authors argue that red color impairs
efficiency in task solving, [5]). An interaction between a
color-induced impact on cognition and tasks’ creative or
accuracy oriented nature presents, in our opinion, a
more plausible explanation as well as a path worth
exploring.
Overall, the present research provides an alternative
approach for understanding the relationship between
visual characteristics and their impact on cognition. The
results are suitable to be integrate in concrete design
procedures and aim to inspire further researches in
relates domains.
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