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Experimental Report
Experimental Report
Experimental Report
Perception
December 6, 2021
Introduction and Objectives:
meeting somebody new, business cards are exchanged. This small piece of paper is used to
describe and help pitch the owner to potential employers, customers, and clients.
Purpose of Study
The purpose of this study was to analyze business card design. The researchers wanted to
analyze how the design of a business card can affect how people perceive the owner of the card.
Specifically, the design element of color was analyzed. Does color affect how people perceive a
working professional? Do brighter colors equate a person with being unprofessional? Are neutral
colors boring?
Variables
The independent variable was the background color of the business card. IV 1 was the
business card with a neutral tan background color. IV 2 was t/he business card designed with a
There were two dependent variables. The first was the perceived professionalism of the
owner of the card based on the card design. The second was the likelihood to contact the owner
Hypothesis
Hypothesis #1:
Null hypothesis: There will be no significant difference in the mean score of “perceived
level of professionalism” of the owner of the blue colored business card and the owner of
higher mean score of “perceived level of professionalism” than the owner of the blue
card.
Hypothesis #2:
Null hypothesis: There will be no significant difference in the mean score of “likeliness
to contact the owner” of the neutral business card and the owner of the blue business
card.
Research hypothesis: The owner of the business card in the neutral color will have a
higher mean score of “likeliness to contact the owner” than the owner of the blue card.
Methods
Experiment Set Up
researchers utilized A/B testing. First, the researchers used the program Canva to design two
business cards. Each card was exactly the same: same size, same information, same font, same
font size, same design. A gender neutral name “Pat Smith” was chosen to try and lessen gender
bias. The only difference between the cards was the independent variable, which was the
background color. Card #1 was given IV1 - the neutral tan color. Card #2 was given IV2 - the
A survey was created using the program Qualtrics. Each respondent would view only one
of the business cards. Then, they were asked to answer questions regarding what they saw. The
randomizer feature on Qualtrics allowed each respondent to be randomly assigned one of the
independent variables.
Questions
The survey began with a consent question. The consent question explained the topic and
purpose of the survey and asked the respondents to give their consent to participate. The consent
question also made the respondent aware that they could skip any question and provided contact
information. The survey used forced response so that the respondents had to provide an answer
before they were exposed to the actual survey questions. The survey utilized skip logic, so if the
respondent disagreed to participate they were then taken to the end of the survey.
The next question came after the respondents viewed the business cards. It asked “what
was the first element of the card you noticed.” Its aim was to measure if the respondents were
even noticing the color at all. Next, respondents were asked “How professional do you view Pat
Smith on a scale of 1-10”. The question used a likert scale, with 1 representing very
unprofessional and 10 representing very professional. This question was related directly to the
first hypothesis. The intended purpose was to measure if the differences in color would result in
different perceptions of professionalism. After that, respondents were questioned “In the
competitive market you may receive handfuls of business cards. In your pile, does this card stand
out?”. This was to measure if the blue card, being a bolder color, would be more likely to stand
out. Next, the respondents were asked to “Rank the following characteristics of "Pat Smith"
based on their business card on a scale of 1-10? (1= not possessing the trait, 10=highly
and arrogance. The question used a sliding scale. Its intent was to measure if positive traits
(trustworthiness and intelligence) or negative traits (aggressiveness and arrogance) were more
likely to be associated with the owner of one card or the other. After that, the respondents were
asked “Would you purchase a business card in this exact design for yourself?” in a yes/no
question. This was to measure if the respondents liked the design of the card. Then, they were
asked which element of the card they would change in a multiple choice question (options
included font, background color, information presented, or other). The option “other” included a
text box. This was to measure if the respondents wanted to change the background color if they
were exposed to the blue card. The next question was “Regardless if you are happy with your
home or on a house hunt, how likely would you be to contact Pat Smith to be your real estate
agent on a scale of 1-5?” This was a sliding scale question. It was to measure if people were
more or less likely to contact the owner depending on the background color they viewed.
The final part of the survey included the demographic questions. First, the respondents
were asked if they have used a real estate agent in the past to gauge if that influenced their
decisions. Other demographics collected included age, gender, and income. The final question
asked what device the respondent took the survey on. Options included cell phone, tablet, laptop,
and desktop. This was asked in case the survey appeared differently on different devices.
Sampling
The survey was sent out to friends and family of the researchers.The survey was sent via
a link through text or email. Participants had about one week to complete the survey. 24
respondents participated and completed the survey. 48% of the respondents were male and 52%
were female.
The sample of ages ranged from 19-58 years old. The average age for survey respondents
Results
The researchers wanted to know what the first element of the card the respondents
noticed. The largest majority of respondents, 48%, first noticed the name “Pat Smith” first. 32%
noticed the color of the card first. 8% noticed the company name. 4% noticed the balanced layout
perception of professionalism in the owner of the card.This was the dependent variable
the owner of the business card based on the business card design. This was on a scale of 10, with
who received the independent variable 1 (neutral/tan color) (M=7.55, SD=5.79) compared to the
14 respondents who received the independent variable 2 (blue color) (M=5.79, SD=2.547)
An independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the means between the
independent variables and the dependent variable “Professionalism”. The t value is 1.802 with 23
degrees of freedom. The p-value is 0.042. The mean difference is 1.760. Because the p-value is
less than 0.05, it can be concluded that the results are statistically significant. The difference in
an affect on their likelihood to contact the owner of the card. This was the dependent variable
“likely to contact”. The 11 participants who received the independent variable 1 (neutral/tan
color) (M=3.45, SD=1.128) compared to the 14 respondents who received the independent
variable 2 (blue color)(M=2.71, SD=1.541) were more likely to say that they would contact the
An independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the means between the
independent variables and the dependent variable “Likely to contact”. The t value is 1.336 with
23 degrees of freedom. The p-value is 0.0098. The mean difference is 0.740. Because the p-value
is greater than 0.05, it can be concluded that the results are not statistically significant. The
difference in means is likely due to chance and not the difference in variables.
The researchers also wanted to analyze if the respondents would use this business card
design for themselves. 64% of the respondents would not purchase a business card in this design
for themselves and 36% would purchase. This is almost two-thirds of the participants stating
Discussion
For hypothesis #1, the null hypothesis is rejected, and the research hypothesis is accepted.
The mean score of professionalism reported by the participants who were exposed to the neutral
color card was higher compared to the mean score of those that saw the blue card. This was
statistically significant. This could have been for several reasons. People may view the brighter,
blue color as reflecting unprofessionalism because of societal standards. Society trains people to
think of bright colors as being unprofessional. Additionally, because the profession was a real
estate agent they may have thought of their own real estate agent used. If they used neutral
colors, the participants may have found the blue shocking. Neutral colors are likely a more
professional color, especially in the context of a real estate agent. This could potentially mean
that when designing a business card, it would be best to stay away from brighter colors. If the
profession was more creative, like a graphic designer, the blue may have seen more professional.
For hypothesis #2, the null hypothesis is accepted, and the research hypothesis is rejected.
The owner of the business card in the neutral color did not have a statistically significant higher
mean score of likeliness to contact than the owner of the blue card. This could mean that color
did not affect if the person would be willing to call the owner. People may be focusing on other
aspects, such as information, rather than the color. Color is likely not a deciding factor if
someone is going to call someone. Also, the insignificant difference could be because the
participants did not notice the color enough. When reporting, they may not have been thinking
Also, because the majority of participants noticed the name first, it can be assumed that
color is not as important as the name. When designing business cards, the name should be
focused on more than color. However, color is still important because it was what the second
largest majority of participants noticed first. In the end, this data shows the background color of
business cards has some effect, but it is not the most important aspect of the business card. Color
can influence the way people perceive the owner of the card, but it may not have an effect on
their actions.
Limitations
Some limitations include a small sample size. There were only 25 people who took the
survey. This limited sample size could have changed the results. If more people took the survey,
there would be more data to compare the two views of the business card too. Another limitation
that could have affected the results is what device people took the survey on. People who took
the survey on a cell phone, saw the business card sample on a smaller screen. This could have
affected the results of how professional they viewed Pat Smith to be. Perhaps, people did not
notice the color design because it was not drastic enough. Also, people may not have been
paying attention to the color since the researchers did not tell them to look at the background
color.
Further Research
Some suggestions for future research would include continuing to gather data, meaning
getting more people to take the survey. In order to be able to generalize these results, this survey
should be given to more people, so the researcher has a larger sample size to base this conclusion
on. Once researchers have a larger sample size, they can draw a more sound conclusion about the
background color of Pat’s business card. Another suggestion would be to manipulate a different
variable. Because most people noticed the name first, try changing the font or the size of the
name. Finally, the experiment could be done on other business documents, such as a resume.