1. DESIGN LOOK — 46.1% OVERALL
When evaluating the credibility of a web site
, participants commented on the design look of the site more often than any other web site
feature, with 46.1% of the comments addressing the design look in some way. When coding for comments on design look, researchers included comments on many elements of the visual design, including layout, typography, white space, images, color schemes, and so on. The comments could be either positive or negative. Some of the comments coded in this category are as follows:
- This site is more credible. I find it to be much more professional looking. — M, 38, Washington
- More pleasing graphics, higher-quality look and feel — F, 52, Tennessee
- Just looks more credible. — M, 24, New Jersey
- Actually, despite the subject of the web site
, it looks very credible. This may be due to the subdued color scheme and the font used on the left-hand side of the page. — F, 29, California - I know this is superficial, but the first thing that struck me is the color difference. The … site is a soothing green (sort of like money) while the [other] site is a jarring purple. — M, 56, Virginia
- The design is sloppy and looks like some adolescent boys in a garage threw this together. — F, 48, California
- Not very professional looking. Don't like the cheesy graphics. — F, 33, Washington
- Looks childish and like it was put together in 5 minutes. — F, 25, Maryland
Design Look comments, by site category
As shown in Figure 6, nearly half of all site evaluators (46.1%) used visual cues, such as the site's overall design or look, to assess a site's credibility. This happened slightly more frequently with finance (54.6%), search engines (52.6%) and travel (50.5%) categories, and less frequently with the health (41.8%) and news (39.6%) categories.
Figure 6: Percentage of comments relating to design look, by category
