While HCI research acknowledges that prior knowledge can be transferred from familiar interfaces to unfamiliar ones, we lack an understanding of which interface characteristics support this process. To adress this issue, we conducted three experiments to identify the interface characteristics that influence the perception of dis/similarities between software interfaces. The first, which involves a card-sorting activity, identifies seven intrinsic characteristics of interface. The second, conducted via an online pairwise comparison survey, identifies three characteristics inherent to the interface’s display context. Finally, the third experiment contrasts the ten identified characteristics to determine their respective influence on perceived interface dis/similarities. Altogether, our results provide actionable guidance for understanding how users perceive differences between interfaces and how such perceptions may inform or facilitate analogical transfer of knowledge from familiar to unfamiliar interfaces.

Video tutorials are the main medium to learn novel software skills. However, the User Interface (UI) presented in a video tutorial may differ from the learner’s UI because of customizations or differences in software versions. We investigate the frictions resulting from such differences on a learners’ ability to reproduce a task demonstrated in a video tutorial. Through a morphological analysis, we first identify 13 types of “interface differences" that differ in terms of availability, reachability and spatial location of features in the interface. To better assess the frictions resulting from each of these differences, we then conduct a laboratory study with 26 participants instructed to reproduce a vector graphics editing task. Our results highlight interesting UI comparison behaviors, and illustrate various approaches employed to visually locate features.