Does animation attract online users' attention? The effects of flash on information search performance and perceptions

摘要

This study examines the effects of flash animation in an online information search environment under both task-relevant and task-irrelevant conditions. This paper is on the role of animation to attract online users' attention. For this the researchers have considered flash animation software. The paper begins with an introduction on the subject. When flash is applied on the target of search, it is considered as task relevant, and when applied on the nontarget item, it is considered as task irrelevant. If flash animation attracts users' attention, it will shorten their response time when the task is relevant and increase their response time when the task is irrelevant. The researchers in this paper aim to derive a more complete understanding of the effects of flash on online users' information search. Section 2 of the paper presents the theory of the research, including visual search research, central capacity theory and the associative network model. The authors also propose various hypotheses for the same. The experimental design is described in Section 3. In Section 4, the results of the data analysis are presented. Section 5 discusses the findings, imitations and directions for further research. The theoretical and practical implications of the work are also discussed in the concluding portion of the paper.