Evaluating Ecommerce: An Aesthetic Perspective

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Evaluating E-commerce An Aesthetic Perspective

• Johnny Snyder
• Mesa State College

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Outline

• Definition and Key Terms
• The Idea and Underpinnings
• Beginning the Study
• Ideas from the E-commerce Class
• A Pilot Study
• Conclusions

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Aesthetic

• Websters defines aesthetic as
• a philosophical theory or idea of what is
  aesthetically valid at a given time and place
• Aesthetics The science of beauty.

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Key terms

• Valid what is acceptable
• - what is normal
• Time past/present/ future
• Place cyberspace/the Web

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Current areas of interest in e-commerce

• Trust
• Privacy
• Credibility

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Levels of e-commerce
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Credibility/Usability/Trust

• Fogg (2002)
• 39.4 54.6 of users give credibility based on
  visual appeal
• Ben-Bassat et al. (2004)
• Found that usability and aesthetics are
  positively correlated

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Negative feedback
Positive feedback
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Positive feedback
Negative feedback
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Begin the studyNielsen (1993)
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Additions to Nielsen
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The study

• How these elements fit together (as axioms) to
  form more complete statements (theorems or norms)
  in cyberspace and/or Web design for groups of
  sites with a shared purpose.
• I.e. what is accepted, normal, familiar
• The visual design should match the sites
  purpose (Fogg, 2004, p.19)

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The study (3)

• E-commerce class, fall 2005
• Idea papers
• Web site evaluations

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Idea paper

• The most important elements of Web design
• Color - 100
• Simplicity/complexity - 68
• Navigation/location/layout - 58
• Familiarity - 26

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Web site analysis

• Add in student interests

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Pilot study

• Airline sites
• Purpose To sell flight tickets
• How Flight search engine

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Pilot study (2)

• Determine the average or normal
• Colors used on airline sites
• Complexity of flight search engine
• Location of flight search engine

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Hofstede (1997)
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Complexity

• Number of words
• Number of hyperlinks
• Number of text boxes
• Hicks Law

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Metrics

• Qualitative Domain Quantitative Domain

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Conclusions

• Patterns are emerging in e-commerce over time
  evolving conventions.
• Patterns are emerging in e-commerce over space
  Hofstedes dimensions used to analyze Web design.

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Questions Arise!

• As usual, the pilot study has given rise to
  numerous questions.
• Questions of time and evolution
• Questions of metrics for complexity
• Questions of culture in a global medium
• Use of color
• Use of language

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Aristotle

• What is not measurable.
• make measurable

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Thanks!

• for coming
• to the reviewer for many helpful comments
• for the questions?

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References

• Ben-Bassat, T., Meyer, J. Tractinsky, N.
  (2004). Using monetary incentives and auctions
  to elicit user preferences between usability and
  aesthetics. CHI 04 extended abstracts on Human
  factors in computing systems, 1569-1569.
• Fogg, B. (2002). How do people evaluate a web
  sites credibility? Results from a large study.
  Retrieved May 18, 2005 from http//www.consumerwe
  bwatch.org/dynamic/web-credibility-reports-evaluat
  e-abstract.cfm
• Fogg, B. (2004). What makes a website credible?
  PowerPoint slides available by request at
  http//credibility.stanford.edu/
• Hofstede, G. Hofstede, G. J. (2005). Cultures
  and organizations software of the mind. New
  York, NY McGraw Hill.

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References (2)

• Nielsen, J. (1993). Usability Engineering. New
  York, NY Morgan Kaufmann.
• Websters (1996). Encyclopedic unabridged
  dictionary of the English language. New York,
  NY Gramercy Books.

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Collectivist Countries Airlines

• LAN (Chile)
• Indian Airlines
• Jet Airways (India)
• Sri Lankan Air (India)
• IranAir
• Malaysia Airlines
• Royal Brunei (Malaysia)
• Copa Panama
• TAP Air Portgual
• EVA Air (Taiwan)
• Thai Airways
• Aeropostal (Venezuela)

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Individualistic Countries Airlines
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Comparison of means
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Navigation/Location/Layout
Foreign Airlines - Individualistic
US Airlines Large
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Navigation/Location/Layout
US Airlines - Small
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Navigation/Location/Layout
Foreign Airlines - Collectivist