ASSESSING THE USABILITY OF A WEB SITE BASED ON AESTHETIC ATTRIBUTES

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The study of Human-Computer Interaction, especially that focusing on user interface design of Web sites, has raised the importance of aesthetics. However, neither a clear definition of aesthetics nor a tool for evaluating the aesthetic quality has been presented in previous research.
This dissertation suggests a relevant perspective on aesthetics, establishes the basis for a definition for aesthetics within HCI, provides an evaluation tool called the Aesthetics Evaluation Tool (AET), and presents the relationships between the aesthetic quality and usability quality of a Web site. Results of an online survey and an on-site experiment are also presented.
Six primary aesthetic concepts that determine the aesthetic quality of an object were suggested by the famous aesthetician, Dessoir. Three of these concepts were examined in the online survey to confirm that they provide aesthetic pleasure. The results of the online survey showed that the aesthetic quality of a Web site could be understood as a degree of one of the three primary aesthetic concepts-the beautiful, the pretty, and the comic.
The Aesthetics Evaluation Tool was developed from the analyses of results of an online survey. Adjectives that made people feel aesthetic pleasure in this online survey phase were collected from the results of the online survey, and these adjectives were used to develop the Aesthetics Evaluation Tool.
Finally, the relationship between the aesthetic quality of a Web site and a user’s performance were examined in an on-site experiment. The experiment results showed that the aesthetic quality of a Web site tends to enhance the dwell time and the time of response. However, results did not show that the aesthetic quality of a Web site enhances all types of user performance

목차 (Table of Contents)

• ABSTRACT = iii
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENT = iv
• TABLE OF CONTENTS = v
• LIST OF FIGURES = ix
• LIST OF TABLES = xi
• CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION = 1
• 1.1 Research Background and Motivation = 1
• 1.1.1 Internet as a Vital Tool of Human Life = 1
• 1.1.2 Severe Competition among Web Sites = 2
• 1.1.3 Research on User Interface Design and Aesthetics = 3
• 1.2 Research Objectives and Hypotheses = 5
• 1.3 Research Process and Methods = 6
• 1.3.1 Stage 0: Understanding Aesthetics and Previous Research = 6
• 1.3.2 Stage 1: Ascertaining the Unique Viewpoint on Aesthetics = 6
• 1.3.3 Stage 2: Developing an Aesthetics Evaluation Tool = 7
• 1.3.4 Stage 3: Examining the Role of Aesthetics toward User’s Performance = 7
• 1.4 Organization of the Dissertation = 7
• 1.5 Summary = 8
• CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW = 10
• 2.1 Aesthetics & Art = 10
• 2.1.1 Art = 10
• 2.1.2 Aesthetic Object and Experience = 11
• 2.1.3 Aesthetic Value - Beauty = 11
• 2.1.4 Objectivity of Aesthetics = 13
• 2.1.5 Primary Aesthetic Concepts = 14
• 2.1.6 Expression Principles = 16
• 2.1.7 Expression & Perception = 17
• 2.2 Aesthetics in the Field of HCI = 20
• 2.2.1 HCI, an Interdisciplinary Research Field = 20
• 2.2.2 User Interface Design: Definition and Goal = 22
• 2.2.3 User Interface Design: Design Principles = 23
• 2.2.4 Emotion and Usability = 24
• 2.2.5 Aesthetics and Usability = 25
• 2.2.6 Credibility and Seduction in Captology = 26
• 2.2.7 Use of a Metaphor in User Interface = 28
• 2.2.8 Multimedia Taxonomy = 30
• 2.2.9 Aesthetics of Programming = 31
• 2.3 Aesthetics in the World Wide Web = 32
• 2.3.1 Definition of the World Wide Web = 32
• 2.3.2 Differences between Print Design and Web Design = 33
• 2.3.3 Special Restrictions of Aesthetics in the WWW = 34
• 2.3.4 Viewable Browsing Area = 36
• 2.3.5 Web Design Guideline = 37
• 2.3.6 Advance of Technologies and Enriched Web Page = 39
• 2.4 Summary = 40
• CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY = 42
• 3.1 Survey of Aesthetics = 43
• 3.1.1 Original Preparation of the Survey Questionnaire = 44
• 3.1.2 Original Design of Survey = 47
• 3.1.3 Pilot Test of the Survey Tool = 49
• 3.1.4 Analysis of the Survey Results = 50
• 3.2 Development of an Aesthetics Evaluation Tool = 51
• 3.2.1 Design of the Aesthetics Evaluation Tool = 51
• 3.2.2 Expert Review of the Aesthetics Evaluation Tool = 52
• 3.3 Experiment to Test the Role of Aesthetics toward the Usability = 53
• 3.3.1 Preparation of Two Web Sites = 53
• 3.3.2 Design of Experiment = 57
• 3.4 Summary = 60
• CHAPTER 4. RESULTS OF THE SURVEY OF AESTHETICS = 61
• 4.1 Modification of the Survey Plan = 61
• 4.1.1 Results of the Pilot Test of the Survey Web Site = 61
• 4.1.2 Modification of the Questionnaire = 62
• 4.1.3 Modification of the Survey Design = 64
• 4.2 Similarity of Aesthetic Pleasure among Individuals = 65
• 4.3 Adjectives that Represent Aesthetic Pleasure = 70
• 4.4 Expression Principles and Aesthetic Pleasure = 72
• 4.5 Summary = 78
• CHAPTER 5. AESTHETICS EVALUATION TOOL = 79
• 5.1 Elimination and Merging of the Adjectives = 79
• 5.2 Preparation of Questions from the Adjectives = 81
• 5.3 Expert Reviews and Modifications of the Aesthetics Evaluation Tool = 82
• 5.4 Summary = 84
• CHAPTER 6. RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENT = 86
• 6.1 Modifications of the Experiment Plan = 86
• 6.2 Comparison of the Aesthetic Quality = 88
• 6.3 Comparison of the Dwell Time = 92
• 6.4 Comparison of the Completeness of a Task = 95
• 6.5 Comparison of the Time of Response = 97
• 6.6 Comparison of the Depth of Response = 100
• 6.7 Summary = 109
• CHAPTER 7. CONCLUSIONS = 111
• 7.1 Contributions = 114
• 7.2 Future Work = 115
• 7.2.1 Expanding the Knowledge Base in Various Research Areas in HCI = 115
• 7.2.2 Extending the Aesthetics Evaluation Tool = 117
• 7.2.3 Constraints of the Experiment & Conducting Refined Experiments = 117
• 7.2.4 User’s Characteristics and User’s Performance = 118
• 7.3 Summary = 118
• REFERENCES = 119
• Appendix A. Screen Shots of the Original Survey Site = 125
• Appendix B. Screen Shots of the Modified Survey Site = 130
• Appendix C. Frequency Charts on Different Age Ranges = 137
• Appendix D. List of Answered Adjectives and their Frequencies = 141
• Appendix E. New Adjectives from Open-Ended Question = 146
• Appendix F. Frequency Charts for the Expression Principles = 147
• Appendix G. Aesthetics Evaluation Tool (Before the Expert Review) = 170
• Appendix H. Aesthetics Evaluation Tool (After the Expert Review) = 175
• Appendix I. Questionnaire for the Experiment = 180