Is an anthropomorphic app icon more attractive than a non-anthropomorphic one? A case study using multimodal measurement

This study investigates how an anthropomorphic app icon affects users' responses from an emotional standpoint. The design is a case-study/laboratory experiment in which 50 participants evaluated a commercially available weather app icon that had facial features (with an anthropomorphic appearance) and the same app icon but without the facial features (non-anthropomorphic appearance). The participants also selected one of the two apps presented on a mock app download interface. Multimodal measurement was used to measure users' responses, including: 1) subjective emotional experiences; 2) attitudes; 3) pupil dilation and facial electromyographic responses; 4) app-selection responses. The relationship between the anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic weather app icon designs and users' responses were analysed. Results showed that the anthropomorphic app icon induced positive emotions, enhanced favourable attitudes, and was selected for downloading more often than the non-anthropomorphic one. An implication is that weather app icons, and probably other icons, should be designed using anthropomorphic elements to attract users.