Visual clarity as mediator between usability and aesthetics

Abstract

Many studies found a positive influence of perceived aesthetics of a user interface on usability ratings. Several psychological mechanisms have been proposed to explain this dependency, but none of them is fully satisfying. A new explanation is based on the observation that certain design elements impact both classical usability criteria and visual beauty. The perception of these design elements is subsumed under the concept of visual clarity. A previous study demonstrated a strong mediator effect of visual clarity on the dependency between perceived aesthetics and perceived usability, i.e. supports this new explanation. But this study had several limitations, and it was thus unclear if the results can be generalised to realistic usage scenarios. We present a replication study that confirmed the reported strong mediator effect under realistic usage conditions. Thus, our results add empirical support for the thesis that the connection between aesthetical impression and perceived usability is caused by visual clarity.