Perceived Visual Aesthetics of Emotionally Evocative Homepages: An Investigation of Affective Qualities Identified With Emotional Dimensions

Abstract

Identified design factors for homepages that elicited aesthetic dimensions in Web users viewing homepages. However, their study was not crosscultural. The focus of this investigator’s study was to test 13 homepages used by Kim et al. with participants from the United States and determine whether the same aesthetic dimensions were evoked in U.S. participants. The resulting survey data of U.S. participants were compared with the survey data for South Korean participants. An initial analysis determined that U.S. participants generally agreed with South Korean participants about which aesthetic adjectives were in an aesthetic category. Other analyses showed no shared perceptions for homepages or adjective sets in aesthetic dimensions. This investigation suggested that aesthetic design principles for homepages from one culture are unlikely to predictably influence other cultures. A regression analysis was also used to investigate aesthetic design elements that prompt responses in U.S. participants.