• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.143-155
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• 2017

In the mobile-first era, plenty of mobile apps have been created so that the number of apps owned in a smartphone have been increasing as well. However, users spend most of time with only a few apps and the rest of apps are just kept in their smartphones for future usage. Thus, in order to help users find the apps quickly it is important to study how users arrange apps in a mobile phone screen and find an app. In the literature, we extracted 5 user types to organize mobile apps. We further conducted user survey with 30 subjects and finalized major 3 user types categorized by relatedness(A), aesthetic(B), and external concepts(C). We found that most of subjects took less than 2 minutes when finding frequently-used-apps. However we identified difference in times taken to find a barely-used-apps across three user types; while A type users turns out to be the most effective in finding barely-used-apps, the B type uses tend to be the least effective among three types. For the A type users, an app's name is more important than an icon image because they tend to guess the functionality from the name of the app. The B type users use the color of app icon to find the app in the smartphone. For the C type users who tend to remain the original position of an app when first downloading it in the smartphone, the visibility of an app icon is important to catch users' eyes while they scan a page. The results of this study is expected to be useful for UX designers who improve the usability of app icon usage considering the user types.

• Review of Korea Contents Association
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.43-52
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• 2011

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.159-160
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• 2017

현재 스마트폰은 보편화가 되며 APP 산업도 신속하게 발전하고 있다. APP 아이콘의 디자인도 미니멀리즘이 점점 업계에서 주류가 되고 있다. 미니멀리즘 APP아이콘은 간결함, 세련된 종합적인 디자인을 이용하여 풍부한 내용 및 본질적 특성을 전달하고 있다. 본 논문은 실제 생활서비스로 APP아이콘으로 연구 대상으로 삼고 사례를 분석하며 미니멀리즘 스마트폰 APP아이콘을 표현 방법 및 주의상황을 요약하였다.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.2251-2270
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• 2015

More than 1 billion mobile apps (smartphone applications) have been released worldwide. Competition among developers of apps that are available in app stores has intensified because of increasing demand. App icons with an appealing design can instantly increase attention. Miryoku Engineering methods were used and combined with the Kansei interface model to examine the relationship between attractive icons and users. The evaluation grid method (EGM) is a qualitative method that was used to evaluate the icons, and Quantification Theory Type I is a quantitative method that was used to analyze the influence of design elements in icons. Eight attractive factors of app icons were determined using EGM, and six specific factors were identified using questionnaires. The quantitative results indicated that user cognition and emotion were influenced by the various design elements. The impact on the attractive factors of a single design element differed among users with diverse backgrounds. App icons were assessed on the basis of aesthetics to identify attractive factors and thereby assist designers in understanding and implementing design elements and improving the overall visual appeal of their apps. The result of this investigation is crucial to the presentation of app icons in online app stores.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.135-146
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• 2021

In this study, in order to provide an app with improved usability to users in the trend of gradually increasing the number of users of music streaming services, usability tests were conducted by conducting interviews before and after the execution of the screen test technique and the performance measurement method and contextual. Usability test was conducted using the Inquiry method. Usability tests were conducted by one user each from their teens to their 50s, and were conducted on Melon, YouTube Music, Genie, and FLO apps with many service users. As a result of the usability test, the icon does not sufficiently represent the function and is not recognized as an interactive button, which is overlooked by the user, the problem that the user does not recognize due to lack of visual effect when the function is activated, The problem was derived. In this regard, suggestions for improving the user screen, such as intuitively changing the icon for each app, adding a visual effect of the screen when the function is activated, and adjusting the position so that the function has continuity, were presented along with the visual data.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.12
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• pp.129-136
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• 2010

Smartphone used to be an it item for only business people and early adaptors. However, the public interest towards Smartphone has been rapidly increased and now is spreading to the everyday life in general people. Variety of applications are introduced and registered in a day, but there are not enough apps with simple and useable interface. This is because that the applications are developed only in a view from developer and designer to match the splendor design and technical skills of apps not concerning the users. Therefore this study will analyze the value in use and design trend of registered apps in apps store to recognize the importance in use and also to discuss about a plan to apply this into the apps more effectively. In order to improve the mobile app usability, this study suggest that using intuitional icon, designing easy to use app navigation. This will lead to produce clear instruction for app developers and designers with more reliable effects in the future of Smartphone world.