Question: **Is there any evidence which shows whether users are more able to recognise another user's Photo over their Username or vice versa?**

I am interested in understanding this from a usability perspective.

Lets say on a site such as this network, a user has both a username as well as a photo/avatar.

* On *Sci-Fi.se* [DVK](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/users/976/dvk) has a very recognisable **avatar**
* On *StackOverflow.se* [Jon Skeet](https://stackoverflow.com/users/22656/jon-skeet) has a very memorable **username**

Which of these is more recognisable/memorable?1

i.e. If **DVK** was to change his picture2, would this throw users off (not quickly recognising who the post if from) or would there be more of an issue if **Jon Skeet** changed his username?3

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**1.** Lets ignore rep points, as it is not relevant to my question.  

**2.** The caveat here is that 'DVK' is also a memorable username, but for the sake of this example lets ignore that.  

**3. Please reference research where possible.**

Answer: 
It depends on the person.

A bit of an extreme example, but a dyslexic for example might struggle telling apart John Skeet and Jonno Teeks, whereas a color-blind person might not be able to tell two people apart that have combinations of certain colors in their avatar.

In general though, avatars tend to offer a wider variety of options. You can use letters, words, colors, shapes, etc. whereas usernames can only do a certain amount of characters, mostly in a single color.

Then again, usernames are often unique, and people won't be able to change them.

Combining those characteristics: avatars serve as a great "first glance" recognition but aren't set in stone, whereas usernames are good for specifics and certainty.

So in general, **avatars are more recognizable, but less authoritative**.
If it's only about recognizable or memorable, then it's avatar.

[Wikipedia page of Avatar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_%28computing%29) stated this (too bad no research or article backed this up)

> 
> ...the avatar is placed in order for other users to easily identify who has written the post without having to read their username.
> 
> 
> 

that implied avatar is indeed easier to be recognized. Because, you can catch a glimpse of image without having to focus on it (or is it just me?), yet username has to be read.

And that statement more or less matches with my experience. In a forum with big avatar, avatar is the first thing I recognize. I opened many threads and saw many posts. After some times, I realized, "eyyy that ava again," and that's where I 'realize' the username, and if I'm lucky, remember it. 

I also found that is user X uses, say, Son Goku avatar for a long time, or changing the avatar, but still Son Goku image that clearly displays the face, before realizing it, everytime I see Son Goku avatar in the forum, I will immediately associate it with that user.