Design of Consumer Product Webpages: Experimental Investigations of Aesthetic and Performance Factors

Abstract

Consumer products are increasingly being purchased online, yet the surge in e-commerce for the sale of retail products was not paired with widespread design savvy or consideration for usability. In this paper, two experimental investigations of aesthetic and performance factors affecting the design of consumer product webpages yield results that designers can use to help create webpages that are useful, usable, and desirable in the competitive e-commerce environment. This research shows how aesthetic and overall preference, ease of use, and interaction speed vary as a function of webpage link color and style, quantity of webpage information, loading speed, and display complexity. Aesthetic preference increases as column width, display complexity, and loading speed increase, and varies with link style. Ease of use and interaction time also vary with link style.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Kerner

S. M.

(2004). E-commerce business is booming. e-commerceguide.com. Retrieved January 25, 2005, from http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/news/;news/article.php/3439191.

Liu

(2003). The aesthetic and the ethic dimensions of human factors and design. Ergonomics, 46, 1293–1305.

Nielsen//NetRatings, Global Internet Index: Average Usage. (n. d.). Month of November 2004, panel type: Home. Retrieved February 7, 2005, from http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/news.jsp?section=dat_gi.

Schmidt

K. E.

Hossoy

(2004). User-centered design of a wall clock. Proceedings of the 48th Annual Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, New Orleans, 48, 966–970.

United States Census Bureau. (2004, November). Quarterly retail e-commerce Sales: Third quarter 2004. Retrieved January 25, 2005, from the Census Bureau Web site: http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/data/html/3q2004html.