The Engagement of Website Initial Aesthetic Impressions: An Experimental Investigation

ABSTRACTThis study investigates how website design features, web page order and visual complexity, influence users’ initial website aesthetic impressions and how such impressions subsequently enhance engagement and intention to use the website. A laboratory experiment was conducted to test the hypotheses using different levels of web page order (high vs. low), visual complexity (high vs. low), and exposure time (one-second vs. no-time-constraint). Overall, the results from structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis suggest that web page order significantly influences visual appeal, engagement, and intention. In addition, the results of multigroup SEM analysis reveal that users evaluate website design very quickly (within 1 s), and that these evaluations remain remarkably consistent over time.