Soda Machine and User Experience: A Study of Icon Display

Touch-screen GUIs have become a key feature of modern consumer electronics. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect that reducing the number of icons on the GUI of a popular soda machine has on drink selection time and user satisfaction. Twenty subjects participated in the study, with 10 assigned to the control and experimental groups respectively. Time to make a drink selection was recorded and compared between groups using unpaired t-test. User satisfaction was measured using a five-point scale questionnaire. The results suggested that user satisfaction, except for the display dependability category, is not affected by the reduction of the number of icons on the soda machine GUI and no change was observed in drink selection time.