TY - GEN

T1 - Website Aesthetics and Functional User States as Factors of Web Usability

AU - Yakunin, Alexander V.

AU - Bodrunova, Svetlana S.

N1 - Yakunin A.V., Bodrunova S.S. (2022) Website Aesthetics and Functional User States as Factors of Web Usability. In: Ahram T., Taiar R. (eds) Human Interaction, Emerging Technologies and Future Systems V. IHIET 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 319. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85540-6_51

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - In web usability studies, a ‘contextual fidelity’ model identifies four factors that significantly affects testing accuracy: web aesthetics; testing environment and circumstances; participants’ personality traits and user states; and the nature of test task. In most works, these factors are considered independent; however, this has never been properly tested. To partly cover this gap, we experimentally test the one-directional effects of web aesthetics and task nature upon user states. Of dysfunctional user states described in literature, we have chosen monotony and anxiety, both equally damaging for user experience but differing by cognitive strategy. By combining high/low-quality web aesthetics and tasks directed to monotony/anxiety, we show that these two factors condition each other in users’ action. To detect monotony and anxiety, we measured cognitive efficiency and emotional stress. 48 student assessors divided into 4 groups were involved in the experiment. Our results shown that, counter-intuitively, the impact of website aesthetics on user states differs in cognitive performance and not in emotional stress. In the case of anxiety, high quality of design provokes hyper-lability of attention, does not contribute to its concentration, and reduces productivity. In the case of monotony, the aesthetic layout dramatically reduces the rate of fatigue and increases productivity. Our results prove that web aesthetics has a non-negligible impact upon more rational decision-making of users, which was overlooked in previous studies.

AB - In web usability studies, a ‘contextual fidelity’ model identifies four factors that significantly affects testing accuracy: web aesthetics; testing environment and circumstances; participants’ personality traits and user states; and the nature of test task. In most works, these factors are considered independent; however, this has never been properly tested. To partly cover this gap, we experimentally test the one-directional effects of web aesthetics and task nature upon user states. Of dysfunctional user states described in literature, we have chosen monotony and anxiety, both equally damaging for user experience but differing by cognitive strategy. By combining high/low-quality web aesthetics and tasks directed to monotony/anxiety, we show that these two factors condition each other in users’ action. To detect monotony and anxiety, we measured cognitive efficiency and emotional stress. 48 student assessors divided into 4 groups were involved in the experiment. Our results shown that, counter-intuitively, the impact of website aesthetics on user states differs in cognitive performance and not in emotional stress. In the case of anxiety, high quality of design provokes hyper-lability of attention, does not contribute to its concentration, and reduces productivity. In the case of monotony, the aesthetic layout dramatically reduces the rate of fatigue and increases productivity. Our results prove that web aesthetics has a non-negligible impact upon more rational decision-making of users, which was overlooked in previous studies.

KW - User states

KW - Web aesthetics

KW - Web design

KW - Web usability

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115655520&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/bfb7d0c8-788e-3f21-a7b4-115925e2bfb4/

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-85540-6_51

DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-85540-6_51

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:85115655520

SN - 9783030855390

T3 - Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems

SP - 394

EP - 401

BT - Human Interaction, Emerging Technologies and Future Systems V

A2 - Ahram, Tareq

A2 - Taiar, Redha

PB - Springer Nature

T2 - 5th International Virtual Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies, IHIET 2021 and 6th International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies: Future Systems, IHIET-FS 2021

Y2 - 27 August 2021 through 29 August 2021

ER -