Visual impressions of mobile app interfaces

First impressions are formed very fast but they last. Consecutive approach-avoidance behavior is formed almost instantly and persists over time. The effect of the first impression of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) of desktop webpages on subsequent evaluation is well documented in the literature. Less research has focused on mobile interfaces. To cover this gap, this paper reports two studies. The first study confirmed the persistence of first impressions on mobile interfaces evaluation, although it suggested that exposure time may be longer. The second study extends previous work on automatic evaluation from desktop to mobile interfaces. The linking theme between the studies is that of visual complexity, which is a more objective, yet powerful, predictor of aesthetic evaluation. Using six automatic metrics (color depth, dominant colors, visual clutter, symmetry, figure-ground contrast and edge congestion), in study 2 we explained 40% of variation in subjective complexity scores and 36% of variation in aesthetics scores.