Applied Aesthetics - Website Design

Website Design

Recent research suggests that the visual aesthetics of computer interface is a strong determinant of users’ satisfaction and pleasure. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses found that users’ perceptions consist of different main dimensions. Lavie and Tractinsky found two main dimension which they termed “classical aesthetics” and “expressive aesthetics”.

• Classical Aesthetics - pertains to aesthetic notions that presided from antiquity until the 18th century. These notions emphasize orderly and clear design and are closely related to many of the design rules advocated by usability experts.
• Expressive Aesthetics - created by the designers’ creativity and originality and by the ability to break design conventions.

While both dimensions of perceived aesthetic are drawn from a pool of aesthetic judgments, they are clearly distinguishable from each other.
In a recent study Moshagen and Thielsch found four core dimensions of website aesthetics:

• Simplicity
• Diversity
• Colors
• Craftsmanship

Simplicity and diversity have repeatedly been treated as formal parameters of aesthetic objects throughout the history of empirical aesthetics. Colors are a very critical property of aesthetic objects. Craftsmanship addresses the skillful and coherent integration of the relevant design dimensions. While simplicity is highly correlated to classical aesthetics as mentioned by Lavie and Tractinsky, the other three factors could be treated as deeper differentiation of expressive aesthetics.

Best practices for aesthetic Website Design
• Create visual clues based on groupings; related items or links are grouped together while unrelated items are separated.
• Use headings and subheadings to allow visual scanning of content.
• Use headings, subheadings, font sizes, bold fonts and italic fonts in proportion to the importance of the item.
• Align elements on a page so that they are all visually connected; size all elements on the page to create balance and unity; nothing should look out of place unless you have a specific reason for the effect.
• Choose a font style that supports the site atmosphere and stick to it; limit styles to 2 at the most.
• Use images and photos for visual appeal and to communicate ideas.
• Use one set of design elements across your website.

Website Design Aesthetics and Credibility
Website design influences user’s perception of site credibility. One of the factors that influences whether users stay or go on a web page is the page aesthetics. Another reason may involve a user's judgment about the site's credibility. Findings indicate that when the same content is presented using different levels of aesthetic treatment, the content with a higher aesthetic treatment was judged as having higher credibility. We call this the amelioration effect of visual design and aesthetics on content credibility. Holmes suggests that this effect is operational within the first few seconds in which a user views a web page. Given the same content, a higher aesthetic treatment will increase perceived credibility.