Peer-reviewed research paper

Eye tracking and the relationship between visual design and visceral reactions in credibility judgments

Research paper by: David Robins, Kent State University, Information Architecture & Knowledge Management
Jason Holmes, Kent State University, School of Library and Information Science
Heather Bryan, Kent State University, Information Architecture & Knowledge Management

Monday March 26 2007, 8:30 - 9:15AM

Web sites often provide the first impression of an organization. For many organizations, web sites are crucial to ensure a sale or to ensure sales or to procure services within. When a person opens a web site, the first impression is probably made in a very few seconds, and the user will either stay or move on to the next site on the basis of many factors. One of the factors that may influence users to stay or go is the visual design of a page. Another reason to stay or go may involve a user's judgment about the site's credibility. This study explores the possible link between page visual design and a user's judgment of the site's credibility. Our findings indicate that when the same content is presented using different levels of aesthetic treatment, the content with a higher aesthetic treatment was judged as having higher credibility. We call this the amelioration effect of visual design on content credibility. Our study suggests that this effect is operational within the first few seconds in which a user views a web page. Given the same content, a higher aesthetic treatment will increase perceived credibility. Eye tracking data show strong tendencies to base judgments on content and design in the top left quadrant of pages.