Name: Sean O’Brien

Student Number: C15586333

Module: Digital Marketing
Lecturer: Kathleen Hughes
Course: DT364/4

Question: Individual Assessment Part (A)

Website Choice: 4. Website Design/User Experience

I declare this work is my own and that I have referenced efficiently when I have used the work of
others.

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Contents

Introcution……………………………………….. 3
Aesthics – The Concept…………………….. 3
Aesthics – Subjective & Objective ……. 4
Aesthetics in Computing ………………….. 4
Usability and Functionality……………….. 5
Usability Factors……………………………….. 5
Conclusion………………………………………… 6
Bibliography……………………………………… 7

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Introduction
Today’s consumers are intelligent, savvy and time starved and want their desires met in an instant.
Whether at a desk, on public transport or just sitting at home people consume internet at an
alarming rate for a variety of reasons. These various online functions all have one thing in common:
the quality of an individual's online experience makes a huge impact. A critical part of that
experience is the ease with which a consumer can find, access, review or buy products and services.
For businesses wanting to attract and convert that interest into revenue, user experience (UX) is
crucial to their success. The ideal online customer journey is a user-friendly website that combines
seamless navigation; a clean-cut purchasing journey; dynamic and digestible content; top notch
customer support, and mobile device compatibility. By combining these elements, a business can
create a digital environment that can make a brand stand out from the pack. [ CITATION Dig20 \l
6153 ]

To demonstrate the previously mentioned desirable traits the researcher will discuss Aesthetic
features – by explaining the concept, what that is, how people have different perceptions towards
various colours/content in terms of difference between subjective and objective aesthetics and its
role in computing. Functionality and Usability will be discussed in relation to their importance of
efficient website design. This will be further developed through the exploration of eight usability
factors they are necessary to achieve success in this field How its about much more than just
usability. While usability is an essential component of the user experience, it is only one piece of the
overall pie as it focuses on things at surface level, while UX digs deeper into whether an individual
page or piece of content will satisfy the specific needs of a user. As an entity, user experience
determines how a brand speaks to its customers and delivers the message it is trying to convey,
effectively.

Aesthetics: The Concept

In 1735 the philosopher Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten labelled the term ‘’aesthetics’’ to mean the
science behind how things are known through the human senses [ CITATION Bra13 \l 6153 ].
Branding it a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste as well as with
the creation and appreciation of beauty [ CITATION Jia16 \l 6153 ]. To explain in the simplest of
terms, aesthetics refers to beauty, some researchers regard aesthetics as a purely subjective concept
that is mostly influenced by the observers’ psychological factors. However, many other researchers
did not favour such an extreme subjectivist view, in relation to web design this can explained
through the subjective and objective design styles, which will be developed further under the next
sub-title. For example, [ CITATION Kub00 \l 6153 ] suggests in [ CITATION Jia16 \l 6153 ] paper that
beauty is determined by mechanisms that are common to all humans. Indeed, our ordinary life
phenomena show that aesthetic judgment does not always vary drastically from one person to
another. It is common that many people appreciate the same piece of artwork and agree that some
people are good-looking and some sceneries are extraordinarily beautiful. Most researchers contend
that although aesthetic judgment is subjective in nature, there is a certain level of objectivity and
common agreement on it [ CITATION Jia16 \l 6153 ].

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Aesthetics: Subjective and Objective
Aesthetics then refers to in lay man terms how a website looks to the user, meaning first
impressions are key here as your look is the image you are trying to portray. An organisations
website is one of their most important salesmen so think of it as visual communication, what do you
need to let the consumer know as quickly as possible to access their mind and then sustain their
attention. Aesthetics can be seen in many disciplines not just computing, such as architecture but to
give you a brief outline of the types of aesthetics in web design the researcher will touch on the
subjective and objective styles of web design.

Taking the concept of aesthetics into the digital world we can first distinctly separate web design
into a subjective and objective view. Objective design can be explained as not being influenced by
anything yet just considers facts. Objective design factors that impact the visual aesthetic impression
are structural and colour factors. Structural factors include symmetry which gives the website better
structure instantly enhancing the user’s perception. [ CITATION Bau08 \l 6153 ] To use an example,
in theory, the more symmetrical a person’s face the more beautiful they are perceived to be and this
is the same with a website. While colour factors conform to the pleasing affects of the page, or in
other words the artwork displayed on the website. The aim to offer aesthetics that uplift a website
through attractive colours to convey the company’s image as positive and bright.

On the other hand, we have the subjective design. Subjective design is based on or influenced by
personal factors, tastes or opinions. This involves the art of simplicity yet flare, the creation of a
sleek and competent website that gets straight to the point. The subjective style is a different type of
UX, its for the consumer that wants to get in, purchase their needs and get out. For example,
ordering food online, you want to get straight to the order quick and easy so the design must enable
the user to do that. It requires a visual appeal offering access to the most sought desires of the
consumer in an extremely accessible way.

Aesthetics in Computing

There has been an increasing interest in aesthetics research in the area of human– computer
interaction (HCI). According to researchers [ CITATION Lav04 \l 6153 ] in [ CITATION Jia16 \l 6153 ]
two key dimensions of visual aesthetics are crucial: classical aesthetics and expressive aesthetics In
the opinion of [ CITATION Lav04 \l 6153 ], classical aesthetics refers to concepts and ideas that have
their roots in “antiquity until the 18th century” and encompass the orderliness and clarity of a
design; and expressive aesthetics captures users’ perceptions of the novelty and creativity of a
website’s design. However, as [ CITATION Lav04 \l 6153 ] admit, their study focuses only on the
visual aspects of websites, but fails to consider the other aspects, such as the dynamic and
interactive aspects of websites. Furthermore, the conceptual definitions and constituents of the two
dimensions are somewhat elusive, thus leaving the determinants of aesthetics still an ambiguous
and unsolved issue, in particular for designers.

Complexity refers to the amount of information content and order refers to the degree of spatial
arrangement (e.g., unity and symmetry). Their results have revealed significant influences of web-
page complexity and order on viewers’ aesthetic preference for web pages. In another study
mentioned in [ CITATION Jia16 \l 6153 ], [ CITATION Tuc12 \l 6153 ] have explored the impact of
visual complexity and prototypicality in shaping users’ first impressions of websites. While
complexity is relatively straightforward, prototypicality depicts the extent to which an object is
representative of a class of objects. Website prototypicality is related to novelty and creativity

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aspects discussed in other studies [40]. Their experimental findings have suggested that perceived
visual complexity and prototypicality are strong predictors for aesthetic evaluations.

In sum, although extant studies have offered useful understandings of aesthetics, their investigation
of antecedents of aesthetics is somewhat preliminary and fragmented. They lack substantial effort to
systematically synthesize findings from different academic domains and a holistic framework to
properly guide designers on how to improve website aesthetics with identified design elements.
Furthermore, additional effort is needed to clearly understand how firms can leverage the functional
mechanism of website aesthetics to better promote their businesses. [ CITATION Jia16 \l 6153 ]

Usability and Functionality

Usability evaluates the extent in which a website facilitates easy and appropriate use of the function
that are offered. Functionality estimates the extent to which a Web site operates as structured and
expected to perform according to the desires of users. The interface of a web site is a medium for
the users to interact with the system, and the functionality of a web site is apparent to users through
its interface. [ CITATION Top13 \l 6153 ] Although usability is generally seen as a feature related only
to the interface and not the logic of the available functions, Seffah et al. (2008) indicated in
[ CITATION Top13 \l 6153 ] that the attributes of a system (i.e., functionality) can affect the usability
of the whole system. Without understanding the functionality of the system, successful usage of a
web site is not possible. Functionality can affect the usability of the system in a positive way, such as
a “cut” function (Bass & John, 2003).
Usability and functionality are interrelated in web design. Only functionality‐focused web site
designs, however, disregard usability needs (Kline & Seffah, 2005) in the design process of a web
site. Thus, both usability and functionality should be taken into account [ CITATION Top13 \l 6153 ].
According to Bertot et al. (2006), in [ CITATION Top13 \l 6153 ] organizations can gain favor by
assessing their web sites via functionality and usability factors, in terms of improving and updating
their targets, interface structures, and services. Evaluating their web sites through the usability and
functionality features would help organizations provide the right degree of tradeoff between
usability and functionality, which would generally meet the expectations of users. The relative
importance of the usability and functionality factors would reflect the expectations of the users.

Usability Factors
The factors associated with usability will now be discussed in detail they are as follows;
1. Navigation
2. Interaction
3. Learnability
4. Ease of use
5. Response Time
6. Memorability
7. Efficiency
8. Satisfaction [ CITATION Top13 \l 6153 ]

Navigation - Refers to the user finding their way to the desired information menus, graphical
components, links, page sequences and layout (Palmer, 2002). The aim is to decrease the cognitive
load of the user as they should be able to see what is available to them from the first page.

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Interaction - This element works alongside navigability to help users easily find their desired
information on a website. According to Ghose and Duo (1998) interactivity is a factor that has a
defining effect on the attractiveness of an e-commerce web site.

Learnability - This is related to the level of web site competence the user possesses and thus the
level of effort that is required to operate the system. The learnability time-period should be short in
order to retain the user’s interest. Consistent, logical and intuitive interface design alongside simple
and plain language formulates combine to amalgamate the essential elements of a learnable web
site.

Ease of Use - The ease of use of a web site simply means being able to operate a web site without
any difficulty. In the opinion of X, it affects the effectiveness of the web site and the user sentiment
towards it. Without this, brand loyalty, returning consumers and the adoption of the web site will
become an unreachable goal.

Response Time - This is time needed by the system to respond to user activity (Palmer, 2002). Short
download times are essential to provide short response times. Short response times are associated
with high quality and efficient web sites. In current times especially, speed is extremely high on the
list of necessities when it comes to consumers choosing the web site they want to deal with.
Consumers want things instantly and lose attention faster than ever therefore to enable to sustained
competitive advantage the creation of speed and efficiency is vital.

Memorability - Memorability is about the ease of recalling the functions and presentations of the
website when a user visits again. According to x, users tend to remember structures that appear
logical to them, here the researcher refers to websites that are constructed in conformity.

Efficiency - Reilly et al. 2003 labels efficiency as the ability to allow users to quickly, giving them the
ability to attain their desired goals in as little clicks as possible.

Satisfaction - As with any business, the aim is to satisfy the consumer’s needs to retain their
consumption and push them to spread the word about their positive experience. This final factor is
all about the UX and how satisfied the consumer was with the system. Satisfaction refers to the
general pleasure that a user feels when using a web site. It is primarily affected by the perceived
efficiency and effectiveness, as well as the emotions and thoughts arising from the usage of the
website.

Conclusion

Building official websites has become inevitable for companies in the modern age, consumers like to
access a company’s official website to get a feel for them. The website provides potential visitors
with an experience of an organisations products, services and their atmosphere without actually
interacting physically with the company, and hence allows for a unique way to shape a companies
image reiterating the importance of a suitable website that coveys exactly what the company is
about. The image can be derived from the overall aesthetics of the website i.e. structural outlay or
colours, or from the usability and functionality factors i.e. navigation or response time. The image of
a company is a valuable asset because it has a positive effect on the company’s sales, profitability
and customer loyalty/retention. From this study, it has become clear of the importance of a
company’s online presence. The many factors that a user unconsciously considers is what web
designers must focus on the most, every detail must align with a positive user experience from their
very first glance of the website to the final purchasing basket.

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Bibliography
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Design Aesthetics. International Journal of Human - Computer Interaction.

Brady, E. (2013). The Sublime in Modern Philosophy: Aesthetics, Ethics and Nature. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press .

Ghose, S. &. (1998 ). Interactive functions and their impacts on the appeal of internet presence sites.
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Institute, D. M. (2020, December 28). Digital Marketing Institute . Retrieved from Why User
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https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/why-user-experience-is-key-to-digital-marketing-
success

Jiang, Z. W. (2016). The Determinants and Impacts of Aesthetics is User's First Interaction with
Websites. Journal of Management Information Systems .

Kubovy, M. (2000). Visual Aesthetics . New York: Oxford Press .

Lavie, T. &. (2004). Assessing dimensions of perceived visual aesthetics of web sites. . International
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Palmer, J. W. (2002). Web site usability, design and performance metrics. Information Systems
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Topaloglu, H. G. (2013). The Relative Imporatnce of Usability and Functionality Factors for E-Health
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Tuch, A. N. (2012). The role of visual complexity and prototypicality regarding first impressions of
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