Recognition of animated icons by elementary aged

This paper describes a study to investigate the recognizability of and preference for animated icons by elementary-aged aged children. Fourteen typical computer-related tasks (e.g., copy, move) were viewed by 60 school-children in two iconic formats: animated and static. The content of the icons and the computer process or action they mimicked were drawn from a previous study in which a similar group of children was asked to depict gesturally their interpretation of the 14 tasks. Results indicated that the animated version of the icons was more recognizable.