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ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 1
Visual Appeal of Hotel Websites: An Exploratory Eye Tracking Study on
Chinese Generation Y
Jin-Xing (Gordon) Haoa, Rui Tanga, Yan Yub,*, Nao Lic, Rob Lawd
a. BeiHang University, Chinab. Renmin University of China, China
c. Beijing Union University, Chinad. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 2
Outline
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical foundations and hypotheses
3. Research method
4. Study I (Survey)
5. Study II (Eye-tracking experiment)
6. Conclusions
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 5
IntroductionV
isu
al A
pp
eal
User Experiences & Subjective Evaluations
Content
Credibility
Trustworthiness
Usability
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 7
Introduction
• Research questions
1. What are the preeminent characteristics of web pages to make hotel websites visually appeal to Chinese Generation Y?
2. How do members of this generation visually respond to these characteristics?
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 8
Theoretical Foundations
1. Visual Appeal in Website Evaluation
• “An immediate pleasurable subjective experience that is directed toward an object and not mediated by intervening reasoning.”
• Fits key properties of visual appeal: value positive, intrinsic, and objectified.
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 9
Theoretical Foundations
1. Visual Appeal in Website Evaluation
• Website evaluation literature review
– Effectiveness and efficiency of interactions
– Perceived usability
– Perceived website performance and trustworthiness
– Affective constructs
– More recently, aesthetic aspects of web design
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 10
Theoretical Foundations
2. Web Characteristics Influencing Visual Appeal
• Web characteristics of aesthetic objects: colors, structure, simplicity, complexity, novelty, and prototypicality.
• Web characteristics preferred by Generation Y
– large main picture
– Search feature
– little text
– images of celebrities
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 11
Hypotheses
• Web pages with pictures are more visually appealing, especially for Chinese Generation Y.
• Chinese generation Y desires positive user experiences via novel web designs.
• Chinese Generation Y is partial to entertainment.
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 12
Hypotheses
• H1: For Chinese Generation Y, web pages of hotel websites with a large main picture are more visually appealing than those without a large main picture.
• H2: For Chinese Generation Y, web pages of hotel websites with little text are more visually appealing than those with blocks of text.
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 13
Research Method1. A survey method in Study I
– to identify preeminent web characteristics preferred by Chinese Generation Y and to test related hypotheses.
– Self-reported ratings
2. An eye-tracking method in Study II
– to explore how participants look at these web characteristics.
– Self-reported ratings + Eye-tracking
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 14
Research Method
• Samples
• Top 50 hotel brands in China
– Based on Meadin Brand Index
– Two major categories: luxury (45%) and economy (55%)
– Dropped one hotel
• Screenshots of homepages
– To maintain consistency
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 15
Study I-Participants
• Objective
– to test the proposed hypotheses and to identify the preeminent web characteristics preferred by Chinese Generation Y.
• Participants
– 53 (M30/F23) Chinese Gen Y , aged 19 to 35.
– Undergraduate and MBA students.
– High levels of Internet experience,1 year+ experience
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 16
Study I-Procedure
• Procedure– Rate the webpages based on visual appeal instead of content
– 9-point Likert scale
• “1”: not at all appealing
• ”9”: very appealing
• Hotel homepage characteristics coding– Two attributes (main picture, and little text)
• With the attribute – coded as “1”
• Without the attribute – coded as “0”
– Three expert judges independently coded each page individually
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 17
Study I-Result
• Descriptive Statistics and Correlation
• Regression on Visual Appeal
Variables N Mean S.D. 1. VA 2. P 3. T
1. Visual Appeal (VA) 49 6.350 0.909 -
2. A Large Main Picture (P) 49 0.200 0.407 0.770*** -
3. Little Text (T) 49 0.370 0.446 0.714*** 0.728*** -
Note: *** p < 0.001, two-tailed tests
Predictor Dependent variable: Visual Appeal
B S.D. Beta t Sig
Intercept 6.595*** 0.251 26.244 0.000
A Large Main Picture 1.189*** 0.287 0.533 4.144 0.000
Little Text 0.664** 0.262 0.326 2.533 0.015
R2 0.643***
Adjusted R2 0.627***
Notes: N=49, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 18
Study II-Participants
• Objective
– To explore the viewing behaviour of Chinese Generation Y and to answer how this generation visually responds to the identified web characteristics.
• Participants
– 20 Chinese Gen Y , aged 19 to 35.
– Generally considered sufficient to get robust eye-movement data
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 19
Study II-Settings
• Design
– 6 homepage: 3 most visually appealing websites and the 3 least visually appealing websites
– Homepages shown in random order
• Device
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 20
Study II-Settings
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 21
Study II-Procedure
Welcome and experiment introduction
Detailed instructions
Eye-tracker calibration
Homepages randomly displayed
Short survey and interview
Thanks and debriefing
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 22
Study II-Measure
• Data collected:– Participant’s visual appeal ratings
– Conducted interviews to explore the reasons for the ratings
– Eye-movement data
• Two general types of eye movements were observed: – Fixations: periods of 200 to 300 milliseconds in which eyes remain
relatively still
– Saccades: eye movements that occur between fixations
• Focused on the fixation data
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 23
Study II-Results
• Heat Maps– Indicated absolute gaze duration to reflect the accumulated time
participants spent looking at the different areas of a web page.
– Red: longest time
– Green: the least time
– Eye fixation reflects people are interested in a particular area, while eye movement represents attentional shifts.
– longer gaze duration indicates greater attention from the participant.
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 24
Study II-Results
• Heat map for the most visually appealing web pages
Orange Hotel
Kempinski HotelShangri-la Hotel
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 25
Study II-Results
• Heat map for the least visually appealing web pages
100 Inn
Shindom InnXilong Hotel
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 26
Study II-Results
• Main pictures and little text may contribute to the attention differences of the two categories of web pages and the perception differences of visual appeal. – The major differences of web pages in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 may be
observed in the large main pictures and little text.
• Chinese Generation Y prefer large pictures and little text.– confirmed by the heat maps in most visually appealing web pages
• Picture size matters– But only occurred for pictures located in top center, whereas
pictures at the bottom were generally ignored.
• All hypotheses are supported.
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 27
Conclusions
• Limitations
? student sample
representative samples and larger sample size
? Heat maps may limit the power of eye-tracking study
Quantitatively compare the eye-tracking indicators
• Future study
Investigating the relations between visual appeal of hotel websites and traditional website evaluation indicators
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 28
Conclusions
• Implications
– Understanding of visual appeal in the context of hotel websites.
– Calls for more research on visual aesthetics relevant to generation Y.
– Demonstrates that methodological triangulation is an effective way to explore new phenomena.
– Suggests that hoteliers pay more attention to generation y and visual appeal of their websites if they want to lead the future experience economy.
ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 29
Thank You
Jin-Xing (Gordon) Hao, PhD
Research Center for IoT Intelligence
School of Economics and Management
BeiHang University
Beijing, China
Email: [email protected]
http://ev.buaa.edu.cn/