Aesthetics in context—the role of aesthetics and usage mode for a website’s success

Abstract

A widespread belief attributes the first impression to be decisive for retaining users on websites. However, empirical investigation on this conjecture has been largely omitted. This paper examines the influence of positive and negative first impressions on subsequent website usage decisions in three different user tasks. In all tasks appealing or non-appealing website screenshots were displayed. In the first two tasks, websites were shortly presented, examining the willingness to view and the intention to stay on websites. In the third task, participants were able to browse naturally, scanning websites, deciding whether to use the website or not, and taking action eventually. Additionally, the N = 120 participants either were given or not given an explicit goal to solve in each task. Data was analysed with different statistical methods (ANOVA, McNemar and Survival Analysis). While the first impression’s significance was demonstrated in Tasks 1 and 2 for both goal mode and action mode, the usage mode was decisive for retaining users on websites in the most realistic user scenario in Task 3. Overall the effect sizes indicated that the significant differences were substantial, ranging from medium to large (Task 1: ηp2 = 0.35/0.66; Task 2: OR = 3.25/5.81; Task 3: OR = 2.11).