The Effect of Layout and Colour Temperature on the Perception of Tourism Websites for Mobile Devices

Kiemute Oyibo,Julita Vassileva

doi:10.3390/mti4010008

Kiemute Oyibo, Julita Vassileva

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/mti4010008

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Abstract

In e-commerce, the user interface design of a website is critical to its success. However, there is limited research on how colour and layout design elements influence the perception of e-commerce websites for mobile devices. To bridge this gap, we conducted an empirical study to investigate, how the layout of information and colour temperature of an e-commerce tourism website for mobile device influence essential Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) user experience (UX) design attributes and intention to use the website. The results of our Partial Least Square Path Modelling (PLSPM) showed that both interface design elements significantly influence perceived aesthetics, perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness and intention to use. Specifically, layout (list = 0 and grid = 1) positively influences perceived aesthetics and perceived enjoyment, while colour temperature negatively influences perceived usefulness and intention to use. The first finding suggests that in tourism website design for mobile devices, a grid layout of products and services provides a better hedonic user experience than a list layout. Moreover, the second finding suggests that cooler-temperature (blue and green) tourism websites are viewed by users as more useful than warmer-temperature (orange and red) tourism websites. We discuss the implications of these findings in the context of website UX design for mobile devices in the tourism domain.

Highlights

Many e-commerce vendors are extending their online products and services to the mobile domain
According to Smith [1], with more than half of all internet traffic originating from the mobile device, it has become important for e-commerce vendors to ensure that their website is “primed for mobile viewing.”
We carried out an empirical study (n = 323) to investigate how both interface design elements and gender influence six user experience (UX) design attributes and intention to use

Summary

Introduction

Many e-commerce vendors are extending their online products and services to the mobile domain. According to Smith [1], with more than half of all internet traffic originating from the mobile device, it has become important for e-commerce vendors to ensure that their website is “primed for mobile viewing.” They went further to state that “If you plan on running a successful eCommerce website, or any website, you absolutely must cater to mobile users” [1]. We aimed to uncover how interface design elements such as colour and layout of information influence user perception of tourism websites on mobile devices. We focused our study on commonly researched Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) UX design constructs (perceived aesthetics, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment) and intention to use. Intention to use has the ability to predict the actual use of a system [8]

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