01705nas a2200229   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002260001200043653001400055653002000069653001500089100001900104700001800123700001700141700002500158245008500183856008000268300001000348490000600358520109700364022001401461       2021                            d  c06/202110aUsability10aUser Experience10aAesthetics1 aMartin Schrepp1 aRaphael Otten1 aKerstin Blum1 aJörg Thomaschewski00aWhat Causes the Dependency between Perceived Aesthetics and Perceived Usability?  uhttps://www.ijimai.org/journal/sites/default/files/2021-05/ijimai_6_6_8.pdf  a78-850 v63 aSeveral studies reported a dependency between perceived beauty and perceived usability of a user interface. But it is still not fully clear which psychological mechanism is responsible for this dependency. We suggest a new explanation based on the concept of visual clarity. This concept describes the perception of order, alignment and visual complexity. A high visual clarity supports a fast orientation on an interface and creates an impression of simplicity. Thus, visual clarity will impact usability dimensions, like efficiency and learnability. Visual clarity is also related to classical aesthetics and the fluency effect, thus an impact on the perception of aesthetics is plausible. We present two large studies that show a strong mediator effect of visual clarity on the dependency between perceived aesthetics and perceived usability. These results support the proposed explanation. In addition, we show how visual clarity of a user interface can be evaluated by a new scale embedded in the UEQ+ framework. Construction and first evaluation results of this new scale are described.  a1989-1660