Abstract
Credibility influences a user's interest in a web site. Once users perceive the credibility of a web site they will be more likely to use it. A combination of factors affects such credibility -- such as the provider, content, aesthetics, accessibility and solution of technical problems. The aesthetics of a web site can affect a user's first impressions of credibility. Experiments have shown that users can judge a web site's credibility in as little as 3.42 seconds merely on the basis of its aesthetic appeal. But what are the aesthetic factors that influence immediate judgment on web credibility? A study was conducted to ascertain these factors; first a framework of factors was suggested to develop a method focusing on the users' actual perceptions in judging credibility based on aesthetics. This was done with 30 subjects viewing 13 pairs of images of recruitment agency web sites. 'Unity' in design with its elements of balance, harmony, contrast and dominance was found to be an effective aesthetic factor resulting in immediate judgments on web credibility. These factors were presented for beginner web designers in online tutorials. This work is a result of MSc project.
Highlights
First impressions of viewing a web site’s home page affect a user’s decision as whether to continue viewing that web site or move to another one
It can be concluded that subjects were able to perceive contrast/dominance by contrast and dominance by size as elements that affected their first impressions of credibility, justifying them as attractive and eye catching factors
The interview results showed that judging credibility in as fast as 3.42 seconds on an aesthetic basis is valid, and provided evidence that the evaluated relationships in the method were perceived, this study will not consider these perceptions as the actual perceptions for the aesthetic appraisal method
Summary
First impressions of viewing a web site’s home page affect a user’s decision as whether to continue viewing that web site or move to another one. This decision can be made in as little as 50 milliseconds mainly because of the page’s visual appeal [17]. First impressions affect users’ judgments on different aspects of web site design including usability, credibility or purchasing intentions [28]. Two different frameworks were identified: the first looks at a web page as pure individual factors like colour, typography, design, pictures, video clips, flash animation and sound [26]. Tidwell [27] discusses more specific individual factors – spaciousness and crowding, angles and curves, texture and rhythm, cultural references and repeated visual motifs and images, while forms, buttons, search features, frames and page length are discussed in ISO (9241151) [8]
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