@inproceedings{baughan2020visual, author = {Baughan, Amanda and August, Tal and Yamashita, Naomi and Reinecke, Katharina}, title = {Keep It Simple: How Visual Complexity and Preferences Impact Search Efficiency on Websites}, year = {2020}, isbn = {9781450367080}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376849}, doi = {10.1145/3313831.3376849}, abstract = {Past research has shown that people prefer different levels of visual complexity in websites: While some prefer simple websites with little text and few images, others prefer highly complex websites with many colors, images, and text. We conducted an online study with 165 participants in which we tested their search efficiency and information recall. We confirm that the visual complexity of a website has a significant negative effect on search efficiency and information recall. However, the search efficiency of those who preferred simple websites was more negatively affected by highly complex websites than those who preferred high visual complexity. Our results suggest that diverse visual preferences need to be accounted for when assessing search response time and information recall in HCI experiments, testing software, or A/B tests.}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems}, pages = {1–10}, numpages = {10}, keywords = {usability, search efficiency, visual appeal, design, user interface, visual complexity, information recall}, location = {Honolulu, HI, USA}, series = {CHI '20} }