Waterfall flow vs. fixed grid webpage layout design – the effects depend on the Zhong-Yong thinking style

Abstract

This study examines how the perception of information layout of webpages is influenced by users’ thinking style, namely, Zhong-Yong (Median) thinking. The waterfall flow and the fixed grid layout were used to present woman’s clothing information in an online store context. Participants rated the classical aesthetics, expressive aesthetics and attractiveness of the webpages after they browsed the webpage under different goals (i.e., leisure viewing vs. target search). Both layout and the mode of use affected the classical aesthetics and attractiveness ratings for low Zhong-Yong but less so for high Zhong-Yong thinking individuals. These findings were interpreted by Zhong-Yong’s influence on users’ controlled vs. guided information search behavior during web browsing. Implications for the roles of culture and individual differences on the design of webpage information layout were also discussed.