Evaluating E-commerce: An Aesthetic Perspective

1. Evaluating E-commerce: An Aesthetic Perspective Johnny Snyder Mesa State College

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

3. Aesthetic • Webster’s defines aesthetic as: “a philosophical theory or idea of what is aesthetically valid at a given time and place” Aesthetics – The science of beauty.

4. Key terms • Valid – what is acceptable - what is normal • Time – past/present/ future • Place – cyberspace/the Web

5. Current areas of interest in e-commerce • Trust • Privacy • Credibility

6. Levels of e-commerce

7. 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

8. Negative feedback Positive feedback

9. Negative feedback Positive feedback

10. Begin the studyNielsen (1993)

11. Additions to Nielsen

12. 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)

13. The study (3) • E-commerce class, fall 2005 • Idea papers • Web site evaluations

14. Idea paper • The most important elements of Web design: • Color - 100% • Simplicity/complexity - 68% • Navigation/location/layout - 58% • Familiarity - 26%

15. Web site analysis • Add in student interests

16. Pilot study • Airline sites • Purpose: To sell flight tickets • How: Flight search engine

17. Pilot study (2) • Determine the average or normal: • Colors used on airline sites • Complexity of flight search engine • Location of flight search engine

23. Hofstede (1997)

24. Complexity • Number of words • Number of hyperlinks • Number of text boxes • Hick’s Law:

29. Metrics Qualitative Domain Quantitative Domain

30. Conclusions • Patterns are emerging in e-commerce over time – evolving conventions. • Patterns are emerging in e-commerce over space – Hofstede’s dimensions used to analyze Web design.

31. 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

32. Aristotle “What is not measurable…. make measurable”

33. Thanks! • …for coming • …to the reviewer for many helpful comments • …for the questions?

34. 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 site’s credibility? Results from a large study. Retrieved May 18, 2005 from: http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/dynamic/web-credibility-reports-evaluate-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.

35. References (2) • Nielsen, J. (1993). Usability Engineering. New York, NY: Morgan Kaufmann. • Webster’s (1996). Encyclopedic unabridged dictionary of the English language. New York, NY: Gramercy Books.

36. 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)

37. Individualistic Countries Airlines

38. Comparison of means

39. Navigation/Location/Layout Foreign Airlines - Individualistic US Airlines Large

40. Navigation/Location/Layout US Airlines - Small

41. Navigation/Location/Layout Foreign Airlines - Collectivist