Online shopping has revolutionized our daily lives in the modern era. We can purchase needed goods on mobile shopping applications (apps) anytime and anywhere without leaving home. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become increasingly dependent on various mobile shopping activities. However, the visual design of the shopping app interface often affects the user’s interactive experience and the efficiency of browsing product information. In addition, gender differences are also worth being considered in the shopping interface design process. To achieve the goal, the research conducted a user study (N=40) of a 2 x 2 x 2 mixed factorial design (i.e., information layout x display mode x gender difference). Each participant performed four tasks during the experiment. The authors measured the task completion time, collected the subjective responses from the SUS and the 7-point Likert scale questionnaire, and interviewed participants. The results revealed that: (1) females perform faster in lighter mode when searching for information location, while males perform faster in darker mode. (2) The information layout affects the user’s visual search performance and subjective evaluation; females prefer the list style, but men prefer the matrix style. (3) Participants (both males and females) perceived matrix style as more popular than list style in dark mode; however, the result was reversed in light mode. The findings generated from the research can serve as a good reference for the development of user experience in the user interface design of mobile shopping apps.

Exploring people’s attitudes toward the appearance design of social robots in a low-cost and efficient way, and enhancing the experience of human–robot interaction have always been topics of concern for robot developers and interaction designers. This study aimed to explore the influence of the baby schema effect on users’ perceptions of cuteness and trustworthiness pertinent to social robot faces through two experiments. Experiment 1 used 100 uniformly processed pictures of robot faces in the real world to help explore the linear relationship among the degree of baby face, cuteness, and trustworthiness, and received a total of 98 valid questionnaires via the Internet. Experiment 2 was a 5 × 3 within-subjects factorial design. The research variables were robot type (i.e. MAKI, RoboThespian, Flobi, Pepper, and iCat) and baby schema (low schema, uncontrolled, and high schema); their impact on users’ perceptions of cuteness and trustworthiness was investigated. A total of 175 valid questionnaires were collected via the Internet. The generated results are as follows: (1) The degree of baby face and perceived emotion of social robot faces had a positive impact on trustworthiness for most real-world robots. (2) This study obtained the correlation formula of baby face, cuteness, and trustworthiness from a quantitative point of view, thus providing a reference for research on the related credibility of communication robots. (3) In general, baby schema effect also existed in the cuteness evaluation of most real-world robots. Faces with high schema were considered cuter and more trustworthy than uncontrolled or low schema faces. (4) Robot type and baby schema had a significant interaction with cuteness and trustworthiness. (5) However, for certain types of robots, baby schema effect may also have a counter-effect, that is, an overly high baby schema may reduce users’ perceptions of the cuteness and trustworthiness of social robots.

Smartphone equipment has promoted the widespread use of new media communication, and users have changed from being passive to actively receiving information. This has changed people’s lifestyles, and has enriched the convenience and entertainment value of knowledge acquisition. However, the new media communication systems can be too complex, and the interface design for users to interact with the new media may not be sufficiently intuitive, which causes interface usability problems. Therefore, this research study focuses on the concept of affordance and the impact of user perception pertinent to smartphone applications on frequency modulation (FM) new media interface design. The experiment is a between-subjects design using one-way ANOVA to examine three different operation modes, namely the Litchi, Himalayas and Archimedes types. The experimental data were obtained through task performance and subjective evaluation. The results indicate that: (1) Visual information presentation methods, such as viewing and deleting, affect user perception. The three operating modes revealed significant differences, with the Himalayas type taking the least amount of task performance time. (2) There were significant differences among the different operation modes, with the Himalayas type the best in terms of the users’ subjective evaluation. (3) The overall analysis of task performance and satisfaction consistently showed that the Himalayas type was better than the Litchi and Archimedes types in all aspects. (4) Smartphone user interface applications provide users with cognitive support, objects, functions, and sensory affordance, which enhance the user’s interactive experience of FM new media.

Restricted by the small screen size, it is challenging for users to obtain all the wayfinding content they need when utilizing mobile devices. This study investigated the effects of map size and interactive interface on users’ wayfinding performance and preference when using mobile devices. Two types of interactive interfaces (i.e., panning and peephole interfaces) and three different map sizes (i.e., small, medium, and large) were examined. The experiment was a 2 × 3 between-subjects design. Sixty participants were invited to complete five wayfinding tasks (i.e., Euclidean distance judgment, route distance judgment, landmark recognition, map section rotation, and route recognition), a system usability scale (SUS) questionnaire, and the subjective preference questionnaire. The results showed that: (1) The participants’ wayfinding performance was affected by the map size and interactive interface; (2) the peephole interface was superior for the Euclidean distance judgment and the route recognition tasks; (3) it does not always take a significantly longer time to complete the task with the larger map when performing the map section rotation task with the panning interface; and (4) the usability scores of the peephole interface were considered above average, and it had a positive impact on the participants’ preferences.