WHAT DETERMINES AN APPEALING WEBSITE? EXPLORING THE ROLE OF DESIGN PRINCIPLES IN CONSUMER DECISION MAKING

Existing research in human-computer interaction suggests that visual perception critically influence the consumers’ attitudes and expectations toward the website. Many websites fail to capture users’ first impression and help them decide on which page they should stay. One of the reasons websites fail is the poor design, even though they are usable. In order to meet this challenge, our study provides recommendations regarding the most important factors that influence users’ first impression: color, symmetry, typography. Moreover, this study analyses a number of websites, recording data from a service that generated important statistics about the websites’ traffic. Next, the proposed factors are linked with the obtained data in order to explain and highlight the importance of the “best practices†in designing successful websites. Our study has a practical value for website designers and marketers concerning the effective use of various design principles in website development.