Aesthetics

Modern social science has demonstrated the value of aesthetics in everyday life. Dion et al (1972), exposed that a person‘s physical appearance guide other facets of social interaction while Nasar (1988a) talked about the affection of people from aesthetics in nature and architecture. Aesthetics seemed additionally to be involved in the new product development, retail environments and marketing strategies‘

formation (Russell, 1988; Whitney, 1988). Moreover, Bloch (1995) stated that

‗‗physical form or design of a product is an unquestioned determinant of its marketplace success‘‘. Researchers have also started studying the role of aesthetics in interaction design and its effects on the users and their perceptions.

Jennings (2000) defined website aesthetics as ―visual beauty or the study of natural and pleasing (aesthetic) computer-based environments‖ arguing that aesthetics in an broader sense which encloses more than a sensory experience, is a concept that allows mathematicians to talk about a beautiful equation and engineers about a delicate design result. Additionally, aesthetics is a customer‘s reactive appreciation to

―consonance/ unity of physical objects and their cadence, or performance‖ (Wu &

Liang, 2009). Aesthetics estimates the immediate pleasure created for the customer who derives from the perception of the visual attractiveness and entertainment ingrained to a certain product or service or even to a physical environment (Mathwick et al, 2001). Suggested by Mathwick et al (2001), the aesthetic dimension of the experiential value is further enlisted into two elements, visual appeal and entertainment. The term visual appeal contains all the noticeable elements within shopping environments while the entertainment element captures the aesthetic response results i.e. the level up to the customers are entertained by their experience on the website (Keng et al, 2007).

Website aesthetics include features such as color, fonts, pictures, and the use of white space, and shapes/lines (Cober et al., 2004) and proved that website aesthetics provide vivid experiences and affect initial attitudes toward a website (Schenkman

&Jonson, 2000; Tractinsky et al., 2000). In particular: colors are used in website design in order to generate depth (White, 2011), structure information and for making items to look different from each other as well as the choice of color palette and number of colors used may have psychological implications and influence the target

37

message the website tends to communicate (Cui, 1998; Nielsen, 2000); fonts are the design of characters unified by consistent visual properties in order to ensure readability (Cui, 1998), with text to be enough spaced and to have color contrast to the background displayed on for not overwhelming the user (White, 2011); pictures include logos, photos, illustrations, animations and icons surely relevant to the topic and attract user‘s interest, with the size of the photos to play an important role (large images should be cropped) and their presence to illustrate a reasonable detail level (Nielsen, 2000); shapes/lines, created with lines, textures, or colors (White, 2011) used to separate different areas of the website (such as menus or search boxes) and create its visual flow (Garrett, 2010).

In 2000, Schenkman and Jonsson reported two other dimensions of visual aesthetics of websites: aesthetic formality, related with the customer perception of organization and order of a website; and aesthetic appeal, related with the perceived novelty and meaningfulness of a website.

This research on the visual aesthetics of website context indicated that the overall impression of the website is estimated according to the level of beauty and that the visual attractiveness is highly associated with the entertainment of the user, the perceptions of easiness of use of the website and as a result the usefulness potentially gained from the website usage (Schenkman and Johnson, 2000). Considering simplicity as an aesthetic element, Karnoven in 2000 pointed out that simplicity is highly correlated with usability. Concluding, computer technology is not only a facilitator concerning usability, but adds another aspect –desirability- and this is the reason why issues as visual appeal and aesthetics becoming essential parts of the website design.

2.5.3.1 The effect of online atmosphere on customers’ emotional responses- Music & Color & Video clips

Organizations with Internet presence through websites focus on increasingly gain their market share through framing the atmospherics and the service environment with a view to impact on Internet customers‘ emotions and behaviors. Exactly like in physical stores and the response of customers in ambient factors (e.g. music and color), the website design in cyber context expresses the interdependences between

38

the website design (e.g. usability) and the proficiency of a web store (Cheng et al, 2009). Many previous researches have mostly concentrated on website design factors as usability, interactions of human-computer, layout of a webpage and little has been discussed for the effect of ambient conditions such as music and color on online customers‘ attitudes. As reported by Baker et al (2002) the importance of the separation between website design and ambient cues lays on the fact that ambient suggestions lean on a more subconscious aspect than subjective design cues. As stated by Kotler (1973-1974), in physical servicescapes, four sensory channels can facilitate the delivery of the atmosphere and these are the visual, aural, olfactory and tactile magnitudes whereas the fifth sense, the taste, does not refer to atmosphere. While shifting from physical to online dimension, the environmental issues are delivered only by two senses –visual (background screen color) and aural (background music) (Eroglu et al, 2003; Sautter et al, 2004).

According to Kyrning (2007), the categorization of basic meanings of different colors that can be applied in North American culture is the following: Cool colors tend to have a calming effect and although they are considered to be cold, impersonal, and antiseptics colors, they are also comforting and nurturing; warm colors, they provoke emotions from simple optimism to strong violence, the warmth of red, yellow, pink, or orange can create excitement or even anger; Mixed Warm and Cool Colors, they contain attributes from both the warm and cool colors which can calm and excite at the same time as well as these are colors derived from a mix of a cool and warm color such as blue and red or blue and yellow; neutral colors help to put the focus on the other colors or serve to tone down colors that might otherwise be overpowering on their own. The colors and their attributed meaning are presented in the following table:

39

Table 1: Colors and attributed meanings, Kyrning 2007.

Gage (1999) talked about the colors and their meanings that are specifically applicable to western culture: Blue, Red, White and Grey for Stability, Power, Trustworthiness, and Conservatism; Yellow, Brown, Orange, Green for nature, earthiness, and warmth; Red, Orange, yellow for warmth and energy; Blues and Aqua for water and coolness; Primary colors (Red, Blue, and Yellow), they convey fun.

Concerning the effects of high color saturation, in their recent research Skulmowski et al (2016) proved that due to the fast manner in which the first impressions of website users are formed, negative effects of high color saturation of pictures are all the more important as well as saturation level should be chosen according to the content domain of websites (e.g. entertainment sites and communication sites, lower levels of saturation may strengthen users‘ trust).

In their research, Cheng et al in 2009 concerning the effects of music and background color on online customers‘ emotional responses, they produced significant results: Fast music succeed in higher level of arousal and pleasure than slow music while the use of cool color assists lower levels of arousal and pleasure than warm colors, showing us that these ambient attributes may create a desired

40

environment for enticing and retaining target customers successfully or moreover even reduce online buyers‘ risk perceptions, the perceived waiting time of page downloads and to facilitate decision making. Given that customers respond to the environments to which they are exposed holistically, all ambient cues are bonded together as a unity in manipulating consumers‘ actions.

Concerning the presence of video clips in a website, Kim & Mattila in their research conducted in 2011 proved that within the hotel industry, hotel operators use video clips to portray their products and services on the Internet. Customers reported that video clips are very important because they provide visual evidence of products/

services and the overall service quality as well as this visual representation facilitates the reduction of uncertainty in experiential services. At the same time, these video clips need to be easily accessed quickly and efficiently. In addition, Jeong and Choi (2004) suggest that well-designed websites are very important for hotels in order to interact with customers and to induce loyalty. Concluding, to successfully attract and retain customers, the virtual servicescape (e.g. video clips showing virtual human interaction) is particularly critical because it is the key artifact representing the firms‘

services to customers (Rafaeli and Pratt, 2005).

2.5.3.2 The impact of atmospherics in online shopping behavior

In 1974, Kotler defined atmospherics as the aware design of the store environment to affect the consumer in a positive way. Another research in atmospherics conducted by Fiore et al. in 2000 pointed out the effect of environmental stimuli on approach-avoidance responses such as behavioral intention, and behavior towards a product. Fiore and Kimle (1997) outlined that consumers evaluate the stimulation of senses, arousal or expression of their emotions and comprehension of symbolic content (e.g. creation of a fantasy image) deriving from sensory, affective and cognitive pleasure respectively. Other researches focused on the results of atmospheric cues as lightning, color and scent in a traditional brick and mortar environment.

Pertaining to the online store environment, Bjork (2010) stated that atmospherics are the website features that stimulate emotional responses.

Furthermore, ―the shopping environment on a website is the venue for e-service

41

experiences. The virtual storefront perceived by the online shoppers is defined by identified website features, of which some are atmospherics stimulating emotional responses, which in turn influence shopping behavior and outcome‖ (Eroglu, 2001).

Thus, web design is about building a functioning, rich in content, well organized, interactive and aesthetic website that stimulate positive emotional customers‘

responses. Websites are created for different purposes i.e. to sell, serve speak, save and/or sizzle (5 Ss), to gain customers and to retain customers. If the customers‘

experience of the use of a specific website is positive they will return to it, will become satisfied and this may lead to customer loyalty (Bjork, 2010).

In their study on atmospherics in hotel industry, Sarkar & Loureiro (2012) argued that atmospherics are perceived as ―any component of websites created by the hotel industries to attract the tourists worldwide along with the individual‘s perceptual field and that stimulates its acoustic and visual senses‖. In order to increase responses from consumers, the responsible designing of web environments makes a hotel perfect to create the positive emotion of web users. Due to the fact that visual appeal is very crucial and website atmosphere helps the consumer to feel the internal and external environment of the hotel and this may create the positive emotional responses in users‘ mind and it helps to increase the consumer responses for longer time as well as purchase intention in the future or consumer revisit and browse of websites, the pictures or the design of web environment should be very consciously. Eroglu et al.

(2003) demonstrated that site atmospherics have a positive impact on pleasure and arousal and both of which have a subsequent positive effect on satisfaction and approach/avoidance behaviors.