Analysis of the User's Understanding of Icons in Graphical User Interface of Simorgh Software

This research is devoted to study the icons in graphical userinterface of Simorgh library software and analyze the users’ understanding ofand interaction with this software in Birjand University. The methodology of this research is of survey type and it isan applied study. To measure the responders’ understanding of icons indifferent pages of search section in Simorgh software, 32 icons from four pagesof search section which were available to the population under study werechosen and put into a questionnaire. Both descriptive and deductive statisticsmethods were utilized for data analysis. According to five-level Likert scale, the user’s perspectiveregarding the three elements of significance level, observing the criteria to beuser-friendly, and quality of icons in graphical user interface of Simorghsoftware were evaluated to be higher than average, higher than average, andmedium, respectively. Besides, users’ general understanding of these icons was38.5% which has a significant difference compared to the desired level ofunderstanding (60%). No significant difference was observed amongunderstanding of the icons by users of different educational level; however,users’ understanding of icons in different pages in search section of thissoftware was not identical. Furthermore, educational field and experience ofusers in using the graphical interface of Simorgh software influenced the levelof understanding of these icons.Originality/Value: Through designing a questionnaire for evaluating thelevel of understanding of icons in Simorgh library software based uponmentioned elements as well as making use of existing literature and experts’opinion, the present study has provided the opportunity for those involved inlibrary software development to alleviate the weaknesses and reinforce thestrengths; also, they can better get acquainted with existing criteria in this fieldand their importance to make use of them in their future products.