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Visual Appeal vs. Usability: Which One Influences User Perceptions of a Website More?
Abstract
This study examines the effects of visual appeal and usability on user performance and satisfaction with a website. Users completed search and exploratory tasks on sites which varied in visual appeal (high and low) and usability (high and low). Results indicate that first impressions are most influenced by the visual appeal of the site. Users gave high usability and interest ratings to sites with high appeal and low usability and interest ratings to sites with low appeal. User perceptions of a low appeal website were not significantly influenced by the site's usability even after a successful experience with the site. Another finding suggested users actively searching for information were more aware of usability issues than users who simply explored a site.
... Visual appeal is associated with elements such as the use of color, graphics, and layout. It is also related to the first impression when someone accesses a website (Lindgaard, Fernandes, Dudek, & Brown, 2006); (Phillips & Chaparro, 2009); (Reinecke & Bernstein, 2013). Display aesthetics, also referred to as visual appeal, has to do with the art or beauty of the web. ...
... Display aesthetics, also referred to as visual appeal, has to do with the art or beauty of the web. Several researchers have confirmed that display aesthetics is prominent in forming a favorable first impression of a website (Reinecke & Bernstein, 2013); (Phillips & Chaparro, 2009); (H. Kim & Fesenmaier, 2008); (Lindgaard et al., 2006). ...
In the discussion of consumer behavior to make a purchase, many influences underlie a person in making purchasing decisions. The theory of motivation has become a reference for many researchers to understand and know the motivation of users and the responses that occur to various stimuli. This research was conducted on consumers who have made purchases using m-commerce in Indonesia. The purpose is to analyze the correlation between interpersonal influence, visual appeal, and portability, with the urge to buy impulsively and urge to buy impulsively through hedonic browsing. The data was analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling. The results show that interpersonal influence has a significant effect on urge to buy impulsively, visual appeal has a significant effect on urge to buy impulsively, portability has a significant effect on the urge to buy impulsively, interpersonal influence has a significant effect on hedonic browsing, visual appeal has a significant effect on hedonic browsing, portability has a significant effect on hedonic browsing, hedonic browsing has a significant effect on the urge to buy impulsively, hedonic browsing mediates the influence of interpersonal influence on urge to buy impulsively, hedonic browsing mediates the effect of visual appeal on urge to buy impulsively, and hedonic browsing mediates the effect of portability on the urge to buy impulsively.
... Visual appeal is associated with elements such as the use of color, graphics, and layout. It is also related to the first impression when someone accesses a website (Lindgaard et al. 2006;Phillips and Chaparro 2009;Reinecke et al. 2013). Display aesthetics, also referred to as visual appeal, has to do with the art or beauty of the web. ...
... Several researchers have confirmed that display aesthetics is prominent in forming a favorable first impression of a website (Reinecke et al. 2013;Phillips and Chaparro 2009;Kim and Fesenmaier 2008;Lindgaard et al. 2006). In addition, research conducted by Parboteeah et. ...
One way to buy online is through m-commerce. In the discussion of consumer behavior to make a purchase, there are many influences that underlie a person in making purchasing decisions. The theory of motivation has become a reference for many researchers to understand and know the motivation of users and the responses that occur to various stimuli. This research was conducted on consumers who have made purchases using m-commerce in Indonesia. The purpose of this study is to analyze the correlation between interpersonal influence, visual appeal, and portability, with urge to buy impulsively and urge to buy impulsively through hedonic browsing. The data was analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling. The results shows that interpersonal influence has a significant effect on urge to buy impulsively, visual appeal has a significant effect on urge to buy impulsively, portability has a significant effect on the urge to buy impulsively, interpersonal influence has a significant effect on hedonic browsing, visual appeal has a significant effect on hedonic browsing, portability has a significant effect on hedonic browsing, hedonic browsing has a significant effect on the urge to buy impulsively, hedonic browsing mediates the influence of interpersonal influence on urge to buy impulsively, hedonic browsing mediates the effect of visual appeal on urge to buy impulsively, and hedonic browsing mediates the effect of portability on the urge to buy impulsively.
... Innanzitutto essa aumenta la probabilità che il testo sia letto/ascoltato, come viene più ampiamente argomentato a proposito dell'estetica del web nel saggio di Maurizio Boscarol, in questo numero di form@re. Prendiamo come esempio una ricerca esposta nel sito del laboratorio di ricerca sull'usabilità dell'Università di Wichita (Phillips e Chaparro, 2009), che ha usato i siti riprodotti nella figura seguente. http://www.surl.org/usabilitynews/112/aesthetic.asp ...
... Un sito attraente e poco attraente(Phillips e Chaparro, 2009). ...
Talvolta la figura decorativa è solo tale ― non chiarisce o aggiunge contenuto, non guida l’elaborazione del testo. Anche così svolge spesso una funzione utile per i lettori light, alleggerendo la pagina, scandendola in segmenti significativi. Ma più spesso fornisce una chiave di interpretazione, suggerendo il tema del testo e così facendo attivando conoscenze precedenti utili per l’interpretazione.
... In this short time, it is wise to imply that their impression is mostly influenced by the visual design on which they lay their eyes upon entering the website. This is supported by existing studies that shows how first impression is highly correlated with visual appeals of the website (Lindgaard et al. 2006;Phillips and Chaparro 2009;Reinecke et al. 2013). However, research also shows that the different in the elements of visual aesthetic show dissimilar impact towards first impression (Reinecke et al. 2013). ...
... Visual aesthetic, also refers as visual appeal, relates to the art or beauty of the web. Some researchers confirm that visual aesthetic is prominent in the formation of favourable first impression of a website (Lindgaard et al. 2006;Kim and Fesenmaier 2008;Phillips and Chaparro 2009;Reinecke et al. 2013). As such, the next hypothesis (H3) is: the more attractive or appealing a website is perceived to be, the more likely web users will form a favourable behavioural intention toward the website. ...
This paper presents the foundation for systematically investigating the possibility of influencing users' motivation with visual persuasion which the constructs are divided into two factors; hygiene and motivation. Visual persuasion is identified as the design triggers that affect users’ first impression, which are seen as the conceptualization of motivation. While past research studied the effect of web design toward users’ motivation; not many are looking into the persuasive value of the design. It is foreseen that the power of visual persuasion would produce a more persuasive website and consequently give impact on the users' first impression, and thus motivate them to stay at a site long enough to influence specific behavioral intentions. The proposed model aims to discover the potential of visual persuasion in influencing web users’ motivation. This paper offers new insights into the role of visual persuasion in a web design with respect to the relationships between the dimensions of motivation and behavioral intention
URL: http://aut.researchgateway.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10292/8044/acis20140_submission_253.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
... A great deal of studies utilized SUS in the assessment of usability of diverse type of products and interactive end user systems. Systems assessed through SUS include mobile applications (Kortum and Sorber, 2015), voting system (Byrne et al., 2007), mHealth systems (Hsieh et al., 2019), safety signs (Ng et al., 2012), traffic signs (Saremi et al., 2018), e-government systems (Hassan Basri et al., 2019), learning software (Tsai et al., 2018), and websites (Phillips and Chaparro, 2009). ...
Article Classification: Research Article Purpose-Mobile banking applications have revolutionized the way individuals manage their finances, offering convenient access to banking services at any time and place. These apps have become indispensable for banks seeking to remain competitive, address their customers' changing needs, and gather valuable data on consumer behavior. Ensuring optimal system usability is vital for the success of such technologies, as it significantly influences user experience and adoption rates. This research investigates the perceived system usability scores of private and public banks in Türkiye. Design/Methodology/Approach-This study employs machine learning techniques to predict perceived system usability scores of mobile banking apps. The System Usability Scale (SUS) has been utilized to evaluate the perceived system usability. Factors considered in the prediction model include demographic data, system usage data, and device technical specifications. Findings-The research demonstrates that machine learning techniques can effectively predict the perceived usability of both public and private bank mobile apps. Key predictors of perceived usability included demographic details, mobile app usage experience, and technical specifications of the devices used. Factors such as age, gender, education, occupation, screen size, mobile operating system, mobile app usage frequency, and previous app experience significantly influence perceived usability. Discussion-The study highlights the potential of machine learning as a powerful tool in social science research, offering valuable insights into complex data sets and patterns. The findings of this research can offer valuable insights to system interface designers and human-computer interaction researchers examining system usability challenges.
... Moreover, formatting quality and picture quality affect a system's attractiveness, especially in the ecommerce environment, because they affect a website's aesthetics (Cyr, 2013;Nathan & Yeow, 2011). (2011) reported, several studies have concluded that an appealing, attractive user interface significantly increases users' perceived usability of online systems (Brady & Phillips, 2003;Éthier et al., 2008;Lindgaard, 1999;Phillips & Chaparro, 2009). Similarly, Schenkman and Jönsson (2000) concluded that aesthetic appeal is the most significant determinant of website evaluations. ...
Most related previous studies have focused on measuring B2C ecommerce success instead of exploring its predictors, and even fewer studies have tested their models across diverse cultures, even though most ecommerce markets involve multiple cultures. Our study extends this line of research by newly identifying and incorporating three predictors of B2C ecommerce success’s system-quality dimension: the formatting quality (FQ), picture quality (PQ), and third-party seal (TPS) user-interface-design factors (UIDFs). Given the uncertainty associated with online shopping, we also incorporated uncertainty avoidance’s moderating influence on B2C ecommerce success as one of Hoftstede’s national culture dimensions. Motivated by cross-cultural research suggesting that behavioral models often do not hold across different cultures, we tested our model using a sample of 768 B2C consumers from Kuwait, Poland, and Latvia. These countries represent three distinct and understudied national cultures: the Arab world, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe. Our results support our newly hypothesized model, suggesting that both picture quality and formatting positively affect system quality, while—surprisingly—TPSs do not. We also found that uncertainty avoidance moderates the relationship between user satisfaction and reuse intentions but not the relationship between perceived value and reuse intentions. Finally, we found that our newly expanded model is robust across the three national cultures we explored; therefore, it can explain reuse intentions in distinct cultures and a B2C ecommerce context. This study’s findings present important implications for practitioners and researchers who seek to understand and improve B2C ecommerce success across distinct national cultures.
... Moreover, formatting quality and picture quality affect a system's attractiveness, especially in the ecommerce environment, because they affect a website's aesthetics (Cyr, 2013;Nathan and Yeow, 2011). As Nathan and Yeow (2011) reported, several studies have concluded that an appealing, attractive user interface significantly increases users' perceived usability of online systems (Brady and Phillips, 2003;É thier et al., 2008;Lindgaard, 1999;Phillips and Chaparro, 2009). Similarly, Schenkman and Jönsson (2000) concluded that aesthetic appeal is the most significant determinant of website evaluations. ...
... The increased aesthetic factors apart from conventional usability contribute to all aspects of user satisfaction (Hartmann et al., 2007) and the total credibility of the product and the system (Norman, 2004;Seckler et al., 2015). Moreover, several types of research revealed the effects of aesthetics on perceived usability (Phillips and Chaparro, 2009), on test cases of usability (Sonderegger and Sauer, 2010), on trustworthiness and integrity (Robins and Holmes, 2008), and enjoyment and fun (Seckler et al., 2015). Online services and internet infrastructure influences the development of electronic commerce (Ponte et al., 2015). ...
The current study integrated the Extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and included information system quality (ISQ), user interface (UI), knowledge sharing motivation (KSM), the expectation confirmation model (ECM), safety management practices (SMP), interface aesthetics (IA), and perceived value (PV) to evaluate the logistics couriers’ experience while using an Online logistics platform. This research examines the relationships of KSM, SMP, and ISQ on the TAM’s, perceived usefulness (PU), and perceived ease of use (PEOU). In addition, it explores the relationship between UI on PEOU. Furthermore, to explore the impact of ECM, it examines the impact of confirmation (CON) on PU and satisfaction (SAT). Finally, this research explores the impact of logistics couriers’ SAT on continuous intention (CI). According to the findings of this study, UI did not have a significant association with PEOU. Furthermore, KSM was found to significantly impact PEOU, while having no significant effect on PU. Moreover, SMP was found to have no significance on PEOU, however, SMP was discovered to be in a significant association with PU. In addition, ISQ was found to significantly impact PEOU, PU, and, PV. Moreover, CON was in a significant relationship with PU, while not having a significant impact on SAT. Furthermore, IA did not significantly impact PV. Also, SAT was significantly impacted by PU, while not having any significant impact from PEOU, and PV. Besides, PEOU was discovered to significantly impact PU. Finally, SAT was found to be in a significant relationship with CI.
... Gradually, overall satisfaction of the website significantly improves which in the end influences the users' intention to be loyal to the website as well as their intention to recommend the website to friends and family. Researchers also suggested that this influence can overshadow usability problems as the users may perceive the website as better than the reality is (Lindgaard, 2007;Papachristos et al., 2011;Phillips & Chaparro, 2009). Even though visual aesthetic seems to be steadily under the focus of study, guidelines on aesthetical design are more focus towards defining the visual element itself, rather than highlighting the types of visual design that should be used for a particular website. ...
The study attempts to highlight the importance of visual persuasion in influencing web users' impression, attitude, and behavioural intention. This is due to the fact that web users tend to make an instant judgment based on their perception of the web design. Thus, the visual design such as an image or short textual message is of major importance when attracting their attention. The goals of this article are to review the literature about persuasive visual design for web design, and develop a conceptual model for needed research. Keywords: visual persuasion, visual communication, web influence.
ABSTRAK. Kajian ini cuba untuk mengetengahkan kepentingan visual 'persuasive' dalam mempengaruhi impresi, sikap, dan niat tingkah laku pengguna web. Ini adalah berdasarkan kepada hakikat bahawa pengguna sesawang cenderung untuk membuat penghakiman segera berdasarkan per-sepsi mereka terhadap reka bentuk sesawang. Oleh itu, visual elemen seper-ti imej atau mesej teks memainkan peranan utama untuk menarik perhatian mereka. Matlamat artikel ini adalah untuk menkaji literatur berkaitan reka bentuk visual persuasif untuk reka bentuk sesawang, dan bina model kon-septual untuk penyelidikan ini. Kata kunci: visual persuasif, komunikasi visual, pengaruh sesawang.
... The highly attractive home page entices consumers to explore the website content and generates initial interest and enjoyment. Regardless of how well a website is developed from a usability aspect, an attractive website design is more likely to attract users than an unattractive website with high usability (Phillips & Chaparro, 2009). The website design attractiveness has significant impact on users' perceptions and subjective experiences, and the designers must consider all design attributes for seamless user experience. ...
E-commerce websites are doing extremely well despite the global slowdown in the traditional brick-and-mortar retail industry. Web page design, search options, and graphical layout may greatly influence the customer base of any e-commerce website. This paper intends to identify the most influential elements of a graphical interface and their effect on consumers’ visual attention. Visual layouts having major influence on customers’ decisions during online shopping were investigated using eye-gaze tracking. Data from 76 respondents were collected to identify parts of the graphical interface attaining maximum user attention in terms of first fixation of eye-gaze and fixation count. Heat maps were used to visualize the results. The results revealed a clear impact of graphical interface on gaining user attention. Further, the experiment also revealed gender-specific visual preferences toward various parts of graphical user interface. The results may further be extended to evaluate product design, packaging design, promotional design, and graphical interfaces of websites.
... Based on the premise that incentives are affected by conscious goals, it identifies two core characteristics of goals that affect motivation of people in performing tasks. They are goal specificity (goals should be specific and measurable) and goal difficulty (the difficulty should be high enough to encourage effort and low enough to be achievable) (Locke and Latham, 2002 (Holzinger, 2005;Hartmann et al., 2007;Phillips and Chaparro, 2009). Whilst, Malone (1982) has different approach in designing an enjoyable user interface. ...
Crowdsourcing is emerging as an efficient approach to solve a wide variety of problems by engaging a large number of Internet users from many places in the world. However, the success of these systems relies critically on motivating the crowd to contribute, especially in microtask crowdsourcing contexts when the tasks are repetitive and easy for people to get bored. Given this, finding ways to efficiently incentivise participants in crowdsourcing projects in general and microtask crowdsourcing projects in particular is a major open challenge. Also, although there are numerous ways to incentivise participants in microtask crowdsourcing projects, the effectiveness of the incentives is likely to be different in different projects based on specific characteristics of those projects. Therefore, in a particular crowdsourcing project, a practical way to address the incentive problem is to choose a certain number of candidate incentives, then have a good strategy to select the most effective incentive at run time so as to maximise the cumulitive utility of the requesters within a given budget and time limit. We refer to this as the incentive selection problem (ISP).
We present algorithms (HAIS and BOIS) to deal with the ISP by considering all characteristics of the problem. Specically, the algorithms make use of limited financial and time budgets to have a good exploration-exploitation balance. Also, they consider the group-based nature of the incentives (i.e., sampling two incentives with different group size yields two different number of samples) so as to make a good decision on how many times each incentive will be sampled at each time. By conducting extensive simulations, we show that our algorithms outperform state-of-the-art approaches in most cases. Also from the results of the simulations, practical usage of the two algorithms is discussed.
... According to Neilsen, Molich, Synder, and Farrell (2000), consumers trust a website when it is easy to navigate and search, looks professional, free of grammatical and typographical errors, and provides useful content. Previous studies found that first impressions of consumers are influenced by the visual appeal of the website (Lindgaard & Dudek, 2002;Phillips & Chaparro, 2009). Visual appeal refers to visual elements such as the choice of fonts, graphics, and background colors, which act to enhance the overall look of the website (Van der Heijden, Verhagen, & Creemers, 2003). ...
The purpose of this study is to explore why diners use restaurant review websites and how restaurant owners can obtain maximum benefit from these sites. By employing the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework, three key attributes of a restaurant review website were explored to discover their impact on consumers’ attitudes and behavioral responses. These attributes included performance, appearance, and content. A mock restaurant review website was created according to the results of in-depth interviews with participants who frequently used restaurant review websites. In the final study, an online survey was conducted. Data were collected from residents of the Southeastern U.S. and yielded 529 completed responses. The results provided support for the structural model. The three attributes of a restaurant review website had significant influences on consumers’ recommendation adoption and intentions to revisit the site in the future. Research implications, limitations, and suggestions were discussed
... A similar study on the influences of visual appeal vs. usability indicates that visual appeal influences a website's first impressions. Mainly, users give high usability and interest ratings and like to sites with a high appeal (see Phillips and Chaparro [46]). ...
Advertising is arguably the most apparent form of marketing. Different forms of advertising , such as posters, billboards, and emails, generate waste and are contrary to sustainability-oriented advertising. Live-Streaming; a new trend of green advertising, and sustainability marketing, promote co-creation, social presence, and sustainability lifestyle. This paper introduced a new social antecedent (value compatibility) and studied how social presence and interactivity promote sustainability purchase decisions. Linear regression was used in testing a total of 498 datasets from Taobao and JingDong, live-streaming platforms. Social present, value compatibility, interactivity, and visual appeal are vital characteristics of B2C and C2C live-streaming that promote sustainability purchase decisions. Live-streaming platforms will not only enhance green marketing but will create a community of consumers who share sustainable lifestyles in promoting global sustainability. The study also cleared the uncertainties surrounding the perceived benefits of sustainability compared to the cost of sustainability adoption.
... In this short time, it is wise to imply that their impression is mostly influenced by the visual design on which they lay their eyes upon entering the website. This is supported by existing studies that show how the first impression is highly correlated with visual appeals of the website ( Lindgaard et al., 2006;Phillips & Chaparro, 2009;Reinecke et al., 2013). The first impression formed during this short time helps the users to decide whether they are going to remain at the website or continue surfing to other sites (Tuch, Presslaber, StöCklin, Opwis, & Bargas-Avila, 2012). ...
Visual design plays an important role in grabbing web users’ attention in an online environment. Previous research has demonstrated that different types of visual design causes different impact towards the end-users. This paper observes the impact of persuasive visual towards users’ first impression, attitudes, and behaviours. It extends existing web visual design by empirically examining the critical roles of the principles of social influence in the form of visual persuasion in motivating users to have a favourable impression of a particular website. Survey data was collected in an experimental study that was conducted online. Structural model assessment is carried out using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in conjunction with PLS-SEM analyses. The general analysis of model fit indicates that the two models proposed in this paper surpassed the cut off values for model acceptance with most of the model fit criteria reflects outstanding explanatory power. The result of the analysis indicates that visual persuasion has a big impact in influencing users’ attitudes on the web; strong enough to affect their behavioural intention.
... It is especially created to convey certain ideas and messages to its audiences via a combination of images, symbols, and text. To achieve this goal, designers often deliberately adjust the overall look and feel of their designs to give people an instant impression that may last for a long time, even before they start reading the contents [Nauert 2011;Phillips and Chaparro 2009;Reinecke et al. 2013]. This look and feel of a design is known as the design's personality, which signatures the design and should match with the design objectives [Gross 2015;Jensen 2013]. ...
Graphic designers often manipulate the overall look and feel of their designs to convey certain personalities (e.g., cute, mysterious and romantic) to impress potential audiences and achieve business goals. However, understanding the factors that determine the personality of a design is challenging, as a graphic design is often a result of thousands of decisions on numerous factors, such as font, color, image, and layout. In this paper, we aim to answer the question of what characterizes the personality of a graphic design. To this end, we propose a deep learning framework for exploring the effects of various design factors on the perceived personalities of graphic designs. Our framework learns a convolutional neural network (called personality scoring network) to estimate the personality scores of graphic designs by ranking the crawled web data. Our personality scoring network automatically learns a visual representation that captures the semantics necessary to predict graphic design personality. With our personality scoring network, we systematically and quantitatively investigate how various design factors (e.g., color, font, and layout) affect design personality across different scales (from pixels, regions to elements). We also demonstrate a number of practical application scenarios of our network, including element-level design suggestion and example-based personality transfer.
... Concerning the assessment of the persuasive characteristics, various studies have incorporated factors related to persuasiveness in websites, with the most influential being the in-depth analysis of Kim and Fesenmaier (2008), who describe persuasiveness as a website's capability to generate an assertive impression. The above mentioned study provoked much further research as it enhances the persuasiveness context (Dickinger & Stangl, 2013;Guadagno, Muscanell, Rice, & Roberts, 2013) and depicts how basic perception is strongly associated with the visual appearance of a website (Lindgaard, Fernandes, Dudek, & Brown, 2006;Phillips & Chaparro, 2009). According to Kim and Fesenmaier (2008), website visitors take rapid decisions concerning a webpage based on their basic perception from an instantaneous interactivity with the webpage. ...
The primary objective article was to investigate the websites’ persuasiveness of the luxury hotels in Greece and its implications for their financial performance. As a result, a content analysis was applied primarily as a quantitative research method, with website characteristics classified into distinct categories and then described using statistics; 335 websites of luxury hotels were reviewed and data were analyzed by means of STATA 12. Persuasiveness measured using six dimensions, namely: informativeness, usability, credibility, inspiration, involvement and reciprocity. The research divulged a comparatively low degree of the hotels overall persuasiveness, specifically in involvement dimension. Furthermore, current research attempted to pinpoint the relation among the hotels’ website overall persuasiveness and its impact on their financial performance. The findings could offer the hotel managers useful insights into enhancing their website’s persuasiveness and accordingly their financial performance.
... § In an empirical study of the visual design of computer-simulated cash machines, the perception of a technology's "attractiveness" led to a perception of its usability (Kurosu & Kashimura, 1995;Tractinsky, 1997). § A SURL study found that users perceived that a website was more or less usable based on an impression of its visual design, regardless of a user's actual usability experience with the site (Phillips & Chaparro, 2009). Understanding the emotional dimension of a user's experience, therefore, might be more effective than measuring "pure" usability (Stolterman, 1995). ...
... Concerning the assessment of the persuasive characteristics, various studies have incorporated factors related to persuasiveness in websites, with the most influential being the in-depth analysis of Kim and Fesenmaier (2008), who describe persuasiveness as a website's capability to generate an assertive impression. The above mentioned study provoked much further research as it enhances the persuasiveness context (Dickinger & Stangl, 2013;Guadagno, Muscanell, Rice, & Roberts, 2013) and depicts how basic perception is strongly associated with the visual appearance of a website (Lindgaard, Fernandes, Dudek, & Brown, 2006;Phillips & Chaparro, 2009). According to Kim and Fesenmaier (2008), website visitors take rapid decisions concerning a webpage based on their basic perception from an instantaneous interactivity with the webpage. ...
... In un recente esperimento (Chaparro e Phillips, 2009), la qualità del design risulta infatti importante anche per motivare l'esplorazione di un sito alla ricerca di informazioni. L'eventuale buona usabilità di un sito brutto non sembra al contrario in grado di influenzare il giudizio estetico. ...
La diatriba fra forma e funzione ha a lungo influenzato il modo in cui si vedeva il tema dell’estetica nell’HCI, contrapponendola a presunti attributi prestazionali e di usabilità, giudicati più importanti. Ma molti studi sui siti web hanno ormai evidenziato come la stessa percezione di usabilità sia fortemente influenzata dagli attributi estetici, mentre l’oggettiva facilità d’uso non ha un ruolo equivalente nel determinare la percezione estetica. L’estetica è importante anche per la motivazione nell’esplorazione di un sito e per la credibilità dell’ente che rappresenta. Il giudizio estetico, a sua volta, è influenzato da diversi fattori, in parte da chiarire e da mettere in relazione. Vi gioca un ruolo il contesto d’uso di un sito, il tipo di compito, ma anche il sesso degli utenti, la loro età. È dunque importante non trascurare l’aspetto estetico nella progettazione di prodotti interattivi online, pena il rischio di fallimento nonostante le risorse impegnate su contenuti e funzionalità. L’emergente disciplina della User eXperience tenta in maniera ancora non accademica di tener conto di tutti questi fattori. Una sfida lanciata anche al mondo della ricerca.
... An in-depth analysis of persuasiveness in websites which has had an impact on the literature, is the study made by Kim and Fesenmaier (2008) who define persuasiveness as the ability of a system to create a positive impression. This study has been followed by numerous researchers because it advances the persuasiveness framework (Dickinger and Stangl, 2013;Guadagno et al., 2013) and shows how first impression is highly correlated with the visual appeal of a website (Lindgaard et al., 2006;Phillips and Chaparro, 2009). Kim and Fesenmaier (2008) suggest that users make quick choices about a website based on their first impression from an immediate interaction with the site. ...
Company websites are an important instrument for relationship marketing activities. In the airline industry, web-based marketing has already been widely applied to service frequent customers as well as to attract new ones. Most of the established airlines are attempting to stimulate customers to shift from traditional distribution channels to online channels. Accordingly, this study identifies and evaluates different groups of airlines based on website evaluation. In order to achieve this objective, six dimensions of website persuasiveness (informativeness, usability, credibility, inspiration, involvement and reciprocity) are evaluated. The methodology applied is based on content analysis of a sample of 240 airline websites. The results obtained enable the identification and description of significant differences in the degree of persuasiveness displayed by the websites. Specifically, this research has identified three airline segments: (1) "influential", (2) "follower", and (3) "passive". The "influential" segment is the most persuasive and can generate influence on other groups of airline websites. The "followers airlines" segment comprises airlines that have a high initiative to implement tools to increase the persuasiveness of the websites. Finally, the "passive airlines" segment comprises airlines with lower website persuasiveness, along with low readiness to communicate and influence the users' buying decisions. The findings can provide valuable information for airlines managers to understand the relative level of competitiveness of their websites in the airline industry.
... An in-depth analysis of persuasiveness in websites, which has had an impact on the literature is the study made by Kim and Fessenmaier [42], who define persuasiveness as the ability of a system to create a positive impression (2008). This study has been followed by numerous researchers because it advances the persuasiveness framework [13,24] and shows how first impression is highly correlated with the visual appeal of a website [49,70]. Kim and Fesenmaier [42] suggest that users make quick choices about a website based on their first impression from an immediate interaction with the site. ...
Based on the development of the use of websites by brands, the purpose of this paper is to identify and describe different groups of luxury brands bearing in mind the persuasiveness of their websites (informativeness, usability, credibility, inspiration, involvement and reciprocity). The data for this study were collected from 197 luxury websites through content analysis methodology. Then, latent class cluster analysis was employed to identify the segments obtained in this study. The results confirm the existence of three segments of luxury brands according to website persuasiveness: “exclusive websites”, “transparent and accessible websites” and “old-fashioned websites”. This study helps luxury brand managers to evaluate the degree of persuasiveness of each group, determines how attractive the websites in each group are and suggests the measures necessary to improve their websites.
... The versatility of the instrument is evidenced by the large number of studies in which it has been employed and the wide variety of platforms for which it has been used for evaluation, including safety signs (Ng, Lo, & Chan, 2001), voting systems (Byrne, Greene, & Everett, 2007), medical systems (Lutes, Chang, & Baggili, 2006), interactive computing systems (Çöltekin, Heil, Garlandini, & Fabrikant, 2009), websites (Phillips & Chaparro, 2009), and phone systems (Evans & Kortum, 2010). Furthermore, several studies have been conducted that have established benchmarks for a large number of products and services, allowing practitioners to compare their results with these benchmark results (Bangor et al., 2008;Kortum & Bangor, 2013;). ...
The use of applications on mobile devices has reached historic levels. Using the System Usability Scale (SUS), data were collected on the usability of applications used on two kinds of mobile platforms—phones and tablets—across two general classes of operating systems, iOS and Android. Over 4 experiments, 3,575 users rated the usability of 10 applications that had been selected based on their popularity, as well as 5 additional applications that users had identified as using frequently. The average SUS rating for the top 10 apps across all platforms was 77.7, with a nearly 20-point spread (67.7–87.4) between the highest and lowest rated apps. Overall, applications on phone platforms were judged to be more usable than applications on the tablet platforms. Practitioners can use the information in this article to make better design decisions and benchmark their progress against a known universe of apps for their specific mobile platform.
... Chen et al (2013) noted that visual appearance of the website is one of the factors associated with quality of online store environment. Visual appeal is associated with elements such as use of colour, graphics and layout (Thielsch and Hirschfeld 2012; Phillips and Chaparro 2009).The information quality sub-dimension on the other hand is to do with the content on the platform. Rowley (2006) remarked that e-service needs to be seen as information service. ...
Online retailing is a new but fast growing phenomenon in many countries around the world. The fast pace at which it is growing is resulting in stiff competition on the online market space. Many firms now realise that they cannot only rely on low prices as a source of competitive advantage and are looking for other effective ways of differentiating themselves so as to attract more customers and enhance their satisfaction with their online stores. This paper investigates online store service quality as a source of competitive advantage for online stores. Data was collected from a total of 201 online shoppers from Gauteng South Africa using a structured questionnaire. The findings show that online store service quality as reflected by platform quality, interaction quality and outcome quality has significant influence on customers’ attitude towards online stores as well as their behavioural response in terms of engagement in positive word of mouth. The findings also show that attitude is not a significant mediator of the relationship between online store service quality and customers behavioural response of positive word of mouth. The findings have wide implications of management of online retail stores and these have been highlighted in the paper.
... With the recent shift in human factors and ergonomics field towards incorporating aesthetic aspects in the design process (Liu, 2003;Norman, 2004), visual aesthetics of website and interface design became a research discipline of its own. Findings of latest studies regarding aesthetic aspects in interface design showed a clear effect of visual aesthetics on users perception of usability of the system (Kurosu, and Kashimura, 1995;Laviea and Tractinsky, 2004;Lindgaard et al., 2006, Phillips andChapparro, 2009;Tractinsky et al., 2000;Tractinsky, 1997) and suggested a possible positive effect on performance (Moshagen et al., 2009;Sonderegger, and Sauer, 2010). ...
Unity of form represents the extent to which visual objects on the screen are related in size. High levels of unity of form can be achieved by using objects with similar sizes on the screen and/or by reducing number of objects on the screen. Findings of earlier observational studies suggested that effect of unity of form on perceived visual aesthetics of website design was more evident in case of highly symmetrical webpages. The purpose of this study is to verify these findings. An experiment was conducted to systematically study effects of number of objects and number of different sizes of objects on perceived visual aesthetics of website design at high and low levels of symmetry. Perceived aesthetics was assessed using the classical/expressive dimensions. Results showed that both factors have significant effects on perceived visual aesthetics, only at high levels of symmetry and only on the classical dimension.
... It remains stable even after a considerably longer exposure [27]. Phillips and Chapparro [23] found that users' impression of usability of websites is most influenced by the visual appeal of the site. Users rated sites with high visual appeal and low usability as easier to use, and gave lower rates to sites with low visual appeal and high usability. ...
The main purpose of this study is to compare objective layout-based measures of visual aesthetics with subjective questionnaire-based measures. Correlation analysis was used to carry out the comparison. Values for the tested objective measures were calculated for forty-two web pages already used in a previous study, for which subjective questionnaire scores (classical/expressive and VisA WI) were already available. Results showed significant correlations between many of the tested objective screen layout-based measures and subjective questionnaire-based measures related to order and layout of the screen. These findings suggest that the objective layout-based measures tested in this study can be used for overall assessments of visual aesthetics of websites and particularly for assessing aesthetic aspects related to the classical and the simplicity dimensions of website aesthetics.
... Media use refers to the aesthetic appeal (attractiveness) of a website, which is determined by the extent of the UCF and UGM. Several web usability studies have also confirmed that appeal does significantly affect the usability of websites [6,50,72,84]. Shenkman and Jonsson [77] found that the most important determinant of the overall judgment of a website is its aesthetic appeal (or beauty). Aesthetic appeal has been linked to human emotions, i.e. websites that are attractive will trigger a positive emotion and will likely result in a positive outcome such as a transaction [31]. ...
The study identifies and prioritizes the crucial Web Usability Factors (WUFs) for websites from 36 industries. 400 respondents
participated in the web evaluation and more than 12,000 data points were collected and analyzed using Multiple Linear Regression.
Seven WUFs were tested, i.e. Use of Color and Font, Use of Graphics and Multimedia, Clarity of Goals in Website, Trustworthiness
of Website, Interactivity of Website, Ease of Web Navigation, and Downloading Speed of Website. Results reveal that every
industry has a different set of crucial WUFs. The research compared and discussed its results with previous studies such as
Agarwal and Venkatesh (Inf. Syst. Res. 13:168–186, 2002). Moreover, students’ preference for Web usability was compared with that of general Internet users. The study provides a
simple method to measure web usability and to determine which WUFs are important for a specific industry with consideration
of the users’ role. Practitioners can use the results as a guide to design usable websites for specific industry. This study
is the first that comprehensively examines the WUFs of students by employing a very large sample size across various industries,
thus yielding more specific and meaningful results.
... It remains stable even after considerably longer exposures [8]. Phillips and Chapparro [9] found that users' impression of usability of websites is mostly influenced by visual appeal of the site. Users rated sites with high visual appeal and low usability as easier to use and gave lower rates to sites with low visual appeal and high usability. ...
A recent study suggested the use of the screen layout elements of balance, unity, and sequence as a part of a computational model of interface aesthetics. It is argued that these three elements are the most contributed terms in the model. In the current study, a controlled experiment was designed and conducted to systematically investigate effects of these three elements (balance, unity, and sequence) on the perceived interface aesthetics. Results showed that the three elements have significant effects on the perceived interface aesthetics. Significant interactions were also found among the three elements. A regression model relating the perceived visual aesthetics to the three elements was constructed. When validating the model using standard questionnaire scores of real web pages, high correlations were found between the values computed by the model and scores of questionnaire items related to visual layout of the web pages, indicating that layout-based measures are good at assessing the classical dimension of website aesthetics.
Background:
Youth in India carry a large proportion of the global burden of mental health disorders and subclinical distress. They prefer to seek mental health support from informal sources. One such source—online mental health peer-support forums (OMHPSFs)—is under-researched. This study aims to explore the perspectives of youth and mental health professionals and counselors (MHP&Cs) in terms of the scope and utility of and inclination to use OMHPSFs for maintaining youth mental well-being.
Methods:
An exploratory, cross-sectional, mixed-methods study was conducted. A total of 141 Indian nationals aged 18–29 years were enrolled using convenience sampling and administered a survey. In the qualitative phase, six youth and seven MHP&Cs were interviewed.
Results:
Ninety (63.8%) and 106 (75.2%) participants indicated a high inclination to use OMHPSFs to seek and provide support, respectively. More than three-quarters of the surveyed youth stated that OMHPSFs should be a space for emotional and informational support to deal with life challenges. A total of 127 (90.1%) participants reported that OMHPSFs would be useful to find out how others their age deal with similar life challenges. A thematic analysis of interviews revealed that anonymity, accessibility, appeal, and ease of use enhance youth inclination toward OMHPSFs. The role of MHP&Cs in training, supervision, and moderation and strategies to popularize OMHPSFs were outlined and recommended.
Conclusion:
Sampled youth showed a high inclination to use OMHPSFs to seek and provide mental health support to their peers. Stakeholders consider OMHPSFs as relevant in scope and utility to alleviate mental health concerns among Indian youth.
In today's digital world, web sites are the essence of what is done for companies that are providers of life for consumers. Quality website content is important for the success of online shopping preferences and other business. In this framework, this study investigates the effect of website content on user acceptance of e-retailing. At the end of the study, the emotional appeal of the content elements of the website and the informational fit-to-task on the attitude towards the use of the web site were positively influenced but the visual appeal was not influenced and the other side got the results indicating that the positively meaningful effect on the behavioral intention to use the attitude web site. Therefore, emotional appeal and informational fit-to-task in the design of high quality website content are important website content elements for practitioners.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine a new research model which includes both hedonic and utilitarian determinants that influence Line users’ attitudes toward hospitality companies that offer free Line stickers for potential users.
Design/methodology/approach
To target the right population, Line users who had utilized hospitality company-branded Line stickers were recruited as participants. Data from 372 usable questionnaires were tested against the research model by using the structural equation modeling approach.
Findings
The results show that all of the proposed variables: perceived usefulness, perceived social presence, perceived richness, perceived enjoyment, perceived novelty and perceived appeal were found to be critical factors significantly influencing users’ attitudes.
Research limitations/implications
This study targeted Line users who had experiences in using hospitality company-branded Line stickers. Therefore, a validation using another large sample gathered elsewhere is required to generalize the findings.
Practical implications
The findings can give hospitality managers an increased understanding of the attitudes of Line users toward the companies providing stickers to them; the results may be employed as a guideline to develop more appropriate business strategies for hospitality organizations with which to promote their products/services.
Originality/value
The proposed model is new; little research has been done on examining Line users’ attitudes toward hospitality companies that offer free Line stickers for users. This study contributes to an understanding of the factors that actually influence users’ attitudes toward those hospitality companies offering brand Line stickers.
Background. Understanding the relations between user perception and aesthetics is crucial for web design. But it is frequent in today’s graphic and media design that rules, established by practitioners even before the advent of Internet and still untested empirically, are taught at design schools and widely used for online interface design. So far, there is no well-established linkage between the in-class recommendations and our empirical knowledge on usability, for which design plays a role just as crucial as web projecting. Will webpages that are better from the designers’ viewpoint perform better in terms of usability? And can one have a list of recommendations tested empirically?
The overall visual attributes (e.g., aesthetics) of Web pages significantly influence user experience. A beautiful and well laid out Web page greatly facilitates user access and enhances the browsing experience. In this paper, a new method is proposed to learn an assessment model for the (visual) aesthetics of Web pages. First, multimodal features (structural, local visual, global visual, and functional) of a Web page that are known to significantly affect the aesthetics of a Web page are extracted to construct a feature vector. Second, the interuser disagreement of aesthetics is analyzed and novel aesthetic representations are obtained from the multiuser ratings of a page. A structural learning algorithm is proposed for the new aesthetic representations. Third, as a Web page's functional purpose also affects the perceived aesthetics, we divide Web pages into different types using functional features, and a soft multitask fusion learning strategy is introduced to train assessment models for pages with functional purposes. Experimental results show the effectiveness of our method: 1) the combination of structural, local, and global visual features outperforms existing state-of-the-art Web aesthetic features; 2) the proposed structural learning algorithm achieves good results for the new aesthetic representations; and 3) the proposed soft multitask fusion learning strategy improves the performances of aesthetics assessment models.
Websites connect businesses with customers. They are an important medium that facilitates online transactions, a necessity for businesses. The design and usability of an Electronic Commerce (EC) website play an important role in achieving its objectives (Kumar, Smith, & Bannerjee, 2004; Marcus, 2005; Nielsen, 2003; 2005; Krug, 2006; Cappel & Huang, 2007). Recognizing their importance, design and usability aspects of EC websites have been widely researched in both applied and academic research (Lecerof & Paterno, 1998; Lohse & Spiller, 1999; Nielsen, 2000; Cao, Zhang, & Seydel, 2005; Flavian & Guinaliu, 2006; Nathan, Yeow, & Murugesan, 2008; Nathan & Yeow, 2009; Robins & Holmes, 2008). This chapter discusses the recent work with web design and electronic commerce. The importance of usability and user-centered web designs are highlighted. Usability to specific target groups and industries, such as airlines, government, and services portals, are also discussed. Altogether, design guidelines are given for web industries, and recommendations are made for better usability in designing websites.
The present study examines how objective design factors of a website are linked to different facets of subjective aesthetic perception. Five online experiments based upon the screenshots of real-existing websites with a total of N = 194 participants were conducted to isolate and analyze the effects of two objective structural factors (vertical symmetry, visual complexity) and three objective color factors (hue, saturation, brightness) on the different facets of subjective aesthetic perception (simplicity, diversity, colorfulness, craftsmanship) measured with the Visual Aesthetics of Website Inventory (Moshagen & Thielsch, 2010). Although all investigated factors are apparent features in website design, their effects on different facets of subjective aesthetic perception are not yet well understood. Our results show that websites of high symmetry, low complexity, blue hue, medium brightness or medium and high saturation received the highest overall aesthetics ratings. Furthermore, data reveal that structural factors compared to color factors have a manifold and greater impact on the different facets of subjective aesthetic perception than the color factors. Both structural factors have a great impact on simplicity, diversity and craftsmanship whereas the color factors have a great impact especially on colorfulness. Only complexity affects all facets of subjective aesthetic perception. The other objective design factors had effects on specific facets. Our findings shed light on the relationship between objective and subjective factors of aesthetic perception and may help designers to systematically target specific facets of visual aesthetics.
Current research on Hispanic consumers focuses on Hispanics as a market segment, not their user experience, usability preferences, or cultural differences. Two studies evaluated the effectiveness of three versions of the Microsoft Product Reaction Cards (MPRC) tool in Spanish when capturing user experience feedback from Hispanic consumers. The MPRC tool (Benedek and Miner, 2002) is typically used by usability and user experience researchers and practitioners to gauge perceived desirability of products or services. Study 1 examined whether there were any differences in the feedback elicited from Hispanic participants based on the type of Spanish translation of the MPRC tool they were provided (direct translation, translator-validated, and user-validated). Study 2 examined whether experts in the field of user experience, usability, and design (typical users of the MPRC tool for research purposes) perceived any differences in the results obtained from the three Spanish translations in terms of the usefulness and richness of the user feedback. Results from study 1 indicate that the participants in the direct-translation list and translator-validated list were not significantly more satisfied than the participants using the user-validated list. Furthermore, translation quality ratings were not significantly different per translation condition. Participants seemed resilient to translation quality perhaps due to their bilingualism. Results from study 2 indicated that experts did not rate the usefulness and richness of the results higher for the user-validated condition than for the other two conditions. Nonetheless, experts felt they could generate themes based on the results provided. These results suggest that a translator-validated translation is adequate and comparable to a user-validated translation in terms of translation quality and ability to yield useful results.
Virtual spaces are blossoming on the Internet. More and more, those spaces deal specifically with health-related issues featuring a dynamic online activity, with community sites having 24 times more social media activity on average than any of the health industry companies (PwC 2012). However, research still lacks knowledge about patients’ motives for joining virtual patients’ communities. In order to respond to the
research gap, this study addresses the following questions: i) What are the characteristics of online collective action among patients in dedicated virtual communities? ii) What are the determinants of patients’ online collective action?
Some researchers have already explored related issues. For example, following Perugini and Bagozzi’s model of purposive behavior (2001), Dholakia et al. (2004), explored the determinants of virtual community participation. Adopting a different approach, Grabner-Kräuter (2010) has shown the relevance of the role of trust in the understanding of online social networks. Those contributions notwithstanding, we still have very little knowledge about individual and social determinants of patients’ adoption of virtual communities. In fact, while a growing number of people gather online through Web 2.0 technologies, information systems research (IS) has hardly conceptualized and examined online collective action. Drawing on the characteristics of collective action, the Lewin (1947) Field Theory, the Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) (Eccles et al. 1983),
gift concepts and positive emotions in behavioral action, this research further explores online action dynamics among patients, actors in health-related online communities.
A qualitative approach was adopted. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with 25 doctors, caregivers, Health 2.0 professionals and Web 2.0 experts. Following this, 29 patients and patients’ relatives have been interviewed. The interviews have been retranscribed and analyzed. The results of this study emphasize the patients’ standpoints about their online collective action, together with their fears or appeals for engagement. Hereby follows the discussion and contributions of the research, and its implications for
future work in the Web 2.0 domain.
Keywords: Patients 2.0, Health 2.0, Virtual Communities, Online Collective Action, Gift Concepts, Field Theory, Expectancy Value Theory, Model of Goal-Directed Behavior, Emotion, Trust
Text-overlaid images abound in product design and human–computer interfaces (e.g., greeting cards and photo slideshows that overlay texts on large background images). This study proposes computational models of perceived aesthetics appeal of text-overlaid images as a function of their white-space fractions. Four models are proposed, including Character-based Page White-Space Fraction (WCP), Character-based Background White-Space Fraction (WCB), Bounding Box based Page White-Space Fraction (WBP), and Bounding Box based Background White-Space Fraction (WBB). Two experiments, using single-spaced and double-spaced texts, were conducted to investigate the relationships between the model predictions and the perceived aesthetic appeal of text-overlaid images. The results show that the Bounding Box based Background White-Space Fraction (WBB), defined as the area ratio between the bounding rectangle of texts and the background region of image, is most valuable in modelling the subjective aesthetic appeal. The regression curves show that the optimal WBB is close to 0.8.
A museum is not just a place to display or store collection. Recently, it has become cultural centre and a place for education. However, young visitors do not visit the museum as often because the collections and displays are not attractive enough to them. Lately, there has been an increase in the usage of the touch screens in local museums, but there are still interface distractions causing lack of engagement in museum experience. The research aims to study touch screen design preferences in National Museum in order to enhance screen design and engage young visitors' museum experience. In order to overcome design barriers which lead to distractions and dissatisfaction, it is important that young visitors' perceptions and preferences are taken into consideration. The researcher will concentrate on design preference for touch screens, including navigational elements, text, display standards, and graphic style guide according to perception of study scope. Observations and interviews are conducted in the first stage of study in order to gain an overall image and understanding of young visitors' perception and experience in using the touch screen in museums. In the second stage of study, the researcher will test out the prototype which adapts design guidelines so as to identify whether it has improved young visitors' engagement in museum experience.
Visual aesthetics enhances user experience in the context of the World Wide Web (Web). Accordingly, many studies report positive relationships between Web aesthetics and facets of user experience like usability and credibility, but does this hold for accessibility also? This paper describes an empirical investigation towards this end. The aesthetic judgements of 30 sighted Web users were elicited to understand what types of Web design come across as being visually pleasing. Participants judged 50 homepages based on Lavie and Tractinsky's classical and expressive Web aesthetics framework. A cross-section of the homepages were then manually audited for accessibility compliance by 11 Web accessibility experts who used a heuristic evaluation technique known as the Barrier Walkthrough (BW) method to check for accessibility barriers that could affect people with visual impairments. Web pages judged on the classical dimension as being visually clean showed significant correlations with accessibility, suggesting that visual cleanness may be a suitable proxy measure for accessibility as far as people with visual impairments are concerned. Expressive designs and other aesthetic dimensions showed no such correlation, however, demonstrating that an expressive or aesthetically pleasing Web design is not a barrier to accessibility.
Eyetracking studies seem to suggest that users do not look at large expressive graphics on web pages [1,2], as seen in the relatively few gaze fixations such graphics attract from users in task-driven eyetracking studies. However, many studies show that users react in very fast important ways to the overall design of web pages, and that such reactions have a profound effect on user's judgments of the usability, aesthetic merit, and trustworthiness of web page designs [3,4].
This study analysed Student Internet Users’ (SIUs’) perception of Web usability. Adopting a user testing method, seven Web Usability Factors (WUFs) were tested for their significance in affecting the ease of use of website. Several elements in websites were also tested for their significance in affecting the WUFs. Result shows the most significant WUF is related to the aesthetic appeal of a website, i.e., Use of Colour and Font. However, it was found that most Web developers are not focusing on this important WUF. Elements such as site map, site search, product image catalogue and others were also found to positively affect SIUs’ perception of the WUFs. The results presented in this paper can be used as guidelines for designing usable websites for SIUs.
A number of philosophers and psychologists stress the importance of disconfirmation in reasoning and suggest that people are instead prone to a general deleterious "confirmation bias." In particular, it is suggested that people tend to test those cases that have the best chance of verifying current beliefs rather than those that have the best chance of falsifying them. We show, however, that many phenomena labeled "confirmation bias" are better understood in terms of a general
positive test strategy. With this strategy, there is a tendency to test cases that are expected (or known) to have the property of interest rather than those expected (or known) to lack that property. We show that the positive test strategy can be a very good heuristic for determining the truth or falsity of a hypothesis under realistic conditions. It can, however, lead to systematic errors or inefficiencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Three studies were conducted to ascertain how quickly people form an opinion about web page visual appeal. In the first study, participants twice rated the visual appeal of web homepages presented for 500 ms each. The second study replicated the first, but participants also rated each web page on seven specific design dimensions. Visual appeal was found to be closely related to most of these. Study 3 again replicated the 500 ms condition as well as adding a 50 ms condition using the same stimuli to determine whether the first impression may be interpreted as a 'mere exposure effect' (Zajonc 1980). Throughout, visual appeal ratings were highly correlated from one phase to the next as were the correlations between the 50 ms and 500 ms conditions. Thus, visual appeal can be assessed within 50 ms, suggesting that web designers have about 50 ms to make a good first impression.
As websites continue to fight for the attention of potential users, designers must begin to look not only at the inherent usability of the site, but also its perceived usability. For instance, Tractinsky (1997) found a correlation between perceived usability and aesthetics when investigating ATM machines. Subjects based their overall opinion of the usability of the ATM on the "look" of the machine. Moreover, in examining users' first impression of websites, Shenkman and Jonsson (2000) found that the best predictor for the overall judgment by typical users of a website was its beauty. Design principles are frequently utilized by graphic designers to create aesthetically pleasing websites. The term harmony can be defined as a pleasing arrangement of parts, whether it be music, poetry, or color. In visual experiences, harmony is something that is pleasing to the eye. Two design principles that influence harmony are balance and color. When a website is harmonious, it engages the viewer and creates an inner sense of order, a balance in the visual experience. When something is not harmonious, it becomes either boring or chaotic (Lauer & Pentak, 2002). According to Lindgaard (1999), color is a strong predictor in the overall appeal of a website. Balance too plays an important role in the appeal of a website. When websites are balanced, users feel a psychological sense of equilibrium (Lauer & Pentak, 2002). Related to this principle is the mathematical concept known as the Golden Section. The Golden Section refers to a proportion in which the ratio of the whole to the larger part is the same as the ratio of the larger part to the smaller. This translates into a ratio that is approximately that of a standard 8.5 x 11 page. The Golden Section has been used extensively by architects, musicians, artists, and mathematicians over the centuries, and is today utilized by graphic designers to create appealing websites.
Numerous authors (e.g., Popper, 1959) argue that scientists should try to falsify rather than confirm theories. However, recent empirical work (Wason and Johnson-Laird, 1972) suggests the existence of a confirmation bias, at least on abstract problems. Using a more realistic, computer controlled environment modeled after a real research setting, subjects in this study first formulated hypotheses about the laws governing events occurring in the environment. They then chose between pairs of environments in which they could: (I) make observations which would probably confirm these hypotheses, or (2) test alternative hypotheses. Strong evidence for a confirmation bias involving failure to choose environments allowing tests of alternative hypotheses was found. However, when subjects did obtain explicit falsifying information, they used this information to reject incorrect hypotheses.
An experiment was conducted to test the relationships between users' perceptions of a computerized system's beauty and usability.
The experiment used a computerized application as a surrogate for an Automated Teller Machine (ATM). Perceptions were elicited
before and after the participants used the system. Pre-experimental measures indicate strong correlations between system's
perceived aesthetics and perceived usability. Post-experimental measures indicated that the strong correlation remained intact.
A multivariate analysis of covariance revealed that the degree of system's aesthetics affected the post-use perceptions of
both aesthetics and usability, whereas the degree of actual usability had no such effect. The results resemble those found
by social psychologists regarding the effect of physical attractiveness on the valuation of other personality attributes.
The findings stress the importance of studying the aesthetic aspect of human–computer interaction (HCI) design and its relationships
to other design dimensions.
High appeal versus high usability: Implications for user satisfaction
- G Lindgaard
- C Dudek
Lindgaard, G. & Dudek, C. (2002). High appeal versus high usability: Implications for user satisfaction,
HF2002 Human Factors Conference, Melbourne, Australia, November 25-27.