Visual Representations of Credibility on Wikipedia: Less is More

We present the results of a between-subjects (n=93) experiment that investigates the effect of different visual design representations on user perceptions of credibility of Wikipedia articles. Users were recruited through Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk system. Participants were randomly assigned to a different condition, corresponding to the visual representation, and were asked a fact-based question about a semi-fictitious Wikipedia article. Participants furthermore reported their perceptions of credibility. An analysis of completion times and responses suggests that simpler visual representations have greater impact on users’ perceptions of credibility than more complex visual representations. ACM Classification: H5.2 [Information interfaces and presentation]: User Interfaces. Graphical user interfaces. General terms: Documentation Experimentation Human Factors Measurement