Author

Kyle Dennison

Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Lepinksi, Matthew

Area of Concentration

Computer Science

Abstract

This study builds off of the previous academic research for creating professional graphical user interfaces by answering the following two questions. Which aesthetic design elements are perceived as the most professional and can they be used to increase the perceived professionalism of a user interface. Designing for usability is a common practice by companies but they fail to account for the changing perspective of professionalism in computer science oriented users. In this study, participants rated a series of aesthetic element examples in four categories: Font, Shape, Texture, and Feature. They rated each element based on the scales Fun to Technical, Novelty to Business, Amateur to Expert, and Unprofessional to Professional. It was found that the Times New Roman font, Square shape, and Smooth Texture were the highest rated professional elements. These elements were then implemented as a plugin in the Java editor IntelliJ using the lowest rated feature Drag and Drop. Which was user tested to determine that there was a positive preliminary trend between the elements and perceived professionalism. This information will aid designers in making principled decisions on how they want the professionalism of their application perceived.

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