Effects of Affordance on the Visual Perception of Smart Washing Machine User Interface Design

Technological innovation leads the future, and iterative updates of smart home products have improved people’s quality of life. However, there is a difference between people’s cognition of operation and the form of product presentation, which confuses users. The aim of this research was to explore the affordance of gender visual perceive for the interface design of smart washing machines. A 2 × 3 mixed factorial experimental design was adopted to help explore whether different gender (i.e., male and female) and operation modes (i.e., Circle, Mesh, and Square) may affect users’ task performance and subjective evaluation. Through the convenience sampling method, 12 participants were recruited to take part in the experiment. The experimental data were collected pertinent to task performance using the system usability scale (SUS), and semi-structured interviews. The generated results revealed that: (1) There was a significant difference in the gender. Gender differences significantly affect the sensitivity of perceiving smart technology products. (2) There were significant differences among different operation modes. The ‘‘Square’’ type interface could be to help users improve task performance. (3) On the whole, the analysis of task performance and SUS consistently shown that the ‘‘Square’’ type is better than the ‘‘Circle’’ and ‘‘Mesh’’ types in all aspects, and the male had the best task performance. (4) The interestingness of the interface operation can stimulate the participants’ potential perception of consciousness.