Evaluating the consistency of immediate aesthetic perceptions of web pages

Two experiments were designed to replicate and extend [Lindgaard et al.'s, 2006. Attention web designers: you have 50 ms to make a good first impression! Behaviour and Information Technology 25(2), 115–126] findings that users can form immediate aesthetic impression of web pages, and that these impressions are highly stable. Using explicit (subjective evaluations) and implicit (response latency) measures, the experiments demonstrated that, averaged over users, immediate aesthetic impressions of web pages are remarkably consistent. In Experiment 1, 40 participants evaluated 50 web pages in two phases. The average attractiveness ratings of web pages after a very short exposure of 500 ms were highly correlated with average attractiveness ratings after an exposure of 10 s. Extreme attractiveness evaluations (both positive and negative) were faster than moderate evaluations, landing convergent evidence to the hypothesis of immediate impression. The findings also suggest considerable individual differences in evaluations and in the consistency of those evaluations. In Experiment 2, 24 of the 50 web pages from Experiment 1 were evaluated again for their attractiveness after 500 ms exposure. Subsequently, users evaluated the design of the web pages on the dimensions of classical and expressive aesthetics. The results showed high correlation between attractiveness ratings from Experiments 1 and 2. In addition, it appears that low attractiveness is associated mainly with very low ratings of expressive aesthetics. Overall, the results provide direct evidence in support of the premise that aesthetic impressions of web pages are formed quickly. Indirectly, these results also suggest that visual aesthetics plays an important role in users’ evaluations of the IT artifact and in their attitudes toward interactive systems.     

Perceptions of web knowledge and usability: When sex and experience matter

Web users are now a mixture of consumer and web designer. As such, the context within which we are socialized about the web – as both male and female users – moderates the relationship between what we think we know about it and its usability to complete tasks. With online survey data from 2077 web users, we empirically examine the relationship between user perceptions of web knowledge (our confidence in what we think we know) and user beliefs about usability of the web (how easy and useful we believe it to be). We include a user’s sex and their website design experience as important moderators on this relationship. Results show a positive relationship between perceived web knowledge and web usability, and under the context of website design experience, more value is placed on the utility of the web, rather than on its ease of use. This moderation effect is stronger for female than it is for male web users. In summary, users with more confidence in their knowledge are more oriented towards the utility of the web than how easy it is to harvest that utility. Our work contributes to an understanding of the influence of the usage context within which the knowledge and beliefs of male and female users are socialized about web technology.     

Aesthetic design of e-commerce web pages – Webpage Complexity,Order and preference

This study was conducted to understand the perceptual structure of e-commerce webpage visual aesthetics and to provide insight into how physical design features of web pages influence users’ aesthetic perception of and preference for web pages. Drawing on the environmental aesthetics, human–computer interaction, and psychology literature, we identify webpage visual Complexity and Order as two salient webpage aesthetic features and investigate the moderating role of the e-commerce customer’s motivational orientation on his/her preference for web aesthetic features. Two independent samples were recruited and presented with images of 24 homepages varying across six levels of Complexity and four levels of Order. The results of this study suggested significant influences of webpage Complexity and Order on customer’s preference for the web pages and a moderating effect of customer’s shopping motivational orientation on his/her preference for webpage Complexity. However, no moderating effect of motivational orientation was found on the preference for webpage Order.     

基于MMTD网页挂马响应的研究

当今网络中通过网页来种植木马的现象已很普遍。利用网页来传播木马技术就是将木马的域名隐藏在网页里,用户在浏览网页时,隐藏在网页中的木马就会被种植到用户的系统中。因此如果被访问的网页嵌入了木马的域名,那么当网络用户发出链接请求响应时,网络的响应将变得异常。基于上述原因,本文从链接请求响应次数的角度,来判断网页中是否藏有木马域名。首先简介木马技术,网页挂马技术和中介的基本概念,然后给出检测函数y=f(x)以及MMTD在检测木马上的应用,最后给出具体检测算法。     

Aesthetics and preferences of web pages

The first impressions of web pages presented to users was investigated by using 13 different web pages, three types of scales and 18 participants. Multidimensional analysis of similarity and preference judgements found four important dimensions: beauty, mostly illustrations versus mostly text, overview and structure. Category scales indicated the existence of two factors related to formal aspects and to appeal of the objects, respectively. The best predictor for the overall judgement of the category scales was beauty. Property vector fitting of the multidimensional solutions with the category scales further indicated the importance of beauty for the preference space. Aspects of usability, product design and aesthetics are discussed.     

How will the use of graphics affect visual aesthetics? A user-centered approach for web page design

This paper addresses new and significant research issues in web page design in relation to the use of graphics. The original findings include that (a) graphics play an important role in enhancing the appearance and thus users' feelings (aesthetics) about web pages and that (b) the effective use of graphics is crucial in designing web pages. In addition, we have developed a web page design support database based on a user-centered experimental procedure and a neural network model. This design support database can be used to examine how a specific combination of design elements, particularly the ratio of graphics to text, will affect the users' feelings about a web page. As a general rule, the ratio of graphics to text between 3:1 and 1:1 will give the users the best feelings of ease-to-use and clear-to-follow. A web page with a ratio of 1:1 will have the most realistic look, while a ratio of over 3:1 will have the fanciest appearance. The result provides useful insights in using graphics on web pages that help web designers best meet users' specific expectations and aesthetic consistency.     

基于相似领域共享特征的分类学习模型

传统上下文在分类研究中通常存在失真和有效性等问题。引入研究对象领域的相似领域作为上下文,借助迁移学习理论,使用结构化相似性学习方法构建研究对象领域和其相似领域间的低维共享特征,提出一种基于相似领域共享特征的分类学习模型。实验以QQ空间的个性化设置数据作为上下文,对用户电子商务网站页面的风格偏好进行分类,验证了所提模型的可行性和有效性。     

Effects of Symmetry and Number of Compositional Elements on Chinese Users' Aesthetic Ratings of Interfaces: Experimental and Modeling Investigations

This article reports two experiments and the corresponding modeling research on the effects of symmetry and the number of compositional elements on Chinese users' aesthetic ratings of interfaces composed with abstract black-and-white geometric images and realistic-looking web pages. Symmetry and the number of compositional elements are the two independent variables, each with three levels. The dependent variable is subjective ratings of aesthetic appeal. The results from both experiments show that symmetry of compositional elements significantly affects aesthetic ratings of Chinese users, whereas the number alone does not have a significant effect on aesthetic ratings. However, subjects preferred realistic web page images with few elements when they lack symmetry. We also describe our development and evaluation of a computational model of aesthetic ratings based on symmetry and the number of compositional elements to predict aesthetic ratings, which can be used to evaluate and support aesthetic design of interfaces.     

The Engagement of Website Initial Aesthetic Impressions: An Experimental Investigation

ABSTRACT

This 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.     

Piggy Bank: Experience the Semantic Web inside your web browser

The Semantic Web Initiative envisions a Web wherein information is offered free of presentation, allowing more effective exchange and mixing across web sites and across web pages. But without substantial Semantic Web content, few tools will be written to consume it; without many such tools, there is little appeal to publish Semantic Web content.To break this chicken-and-egg problem, thus enabling more flexible information access, we have created a web browser extension called Piggy Bank that lets users make use of Semantic Web content within Web content as users browse the Web. Wherever Semantic Web content is not available, Piggy Bank can invoke screenscrapers to re-structure information within web pages into Semantic Web format. Through the use of Semantic Web technologies, Piggy Bank provides direct, immediate benefits to users in their use of the existing Web. Thus, the existence of even just a few Semantic Web-enabled sites or a few scrapers already benefits users. Piggy Bank thereby offers an easy, incremental upgrade path to users without requiring a wholesale adoption of the Semantic Web's vision.To further improve this Semantic Web experience, we have created Semantic Bank, a web server application that lets Piggy Bank users share the Semantic Web information they have collected, enabling collaborative efforts to build sophisticated Semantic Web information repositories through simple, everyday's use of Piggy Bank.     

面向个性化服务的网页特征描述

个性化服务研究核心点在于准确描述用户兴趣,即对用户访问过并感兴趣的网页进行准确描述。现今对网页特征描述方法还未有系统的研究。针对网页特征描述中涉及的特征抽取范围,特征词规范化及词语权重计算3方面内容进行了分析研究,将改进后的新方法应用于个性化服务系统时取得了较好的信息推荐效果。     

Aesthetics and preferences of web pages

The first impressions of web pages presented to users was investigated by using 13 different web pages, three types of scales and 18 participants. Multidimensional analysis of similarity and preference judgements found four important dimensions: beauty, mostly illustrations versus mostly text, overview and structure. Category scales indicated the existence of two factors related to formal aspects and to appeal of the objects, respectively. The best predictor for the overall judgement of the category scales was beauty. Property vector fitting of the multidimensional solutions with the category scales further indicated the importance of beauty for the preference space. Aspects of usability, product design and aesthetics are discussed.     

Evolving semantic web with social navigation

The Semantic Web (SW) is a meta-web built on the existing WWW to facilitate its access. SW expresses and exploits dependencies between web pages to yield focused search results. Manual annotation of web pages towards building a SW is hindered by at least two user dependent factors: users do not agree on an annotation standard, which can be used to extricate their pages inter-dependencies; and they are simply too lazy to use, undertake and maintain annotation of pages. In this paper, we present an alternative to exploit web pages dependencies: as users surf the net, they create a virtual surfing trail which can be shared with other users, this parallels social navigation for knowledge. We capture and use these trails to allow subsequent intelligent search of the web.People surfing the net with different interests and objectives do not leave similar and mutually beneficial trails. However, individuals in a given interest group produce trails that are of interest to the whole group. Moreover, special interest groups will be higher motivated than casual users to rate utility of pages they browse. In this paper, we introduce our system KAPUST1.2 (Keeper And Processor of User Surfing Trails). It captures user trails as they search the internet. It constructs a semantic web structure from the trails. The semantic web structure is expressed as a conceptual lattice guiding future searches. KAPUST is deployed as an E-learning software for an undergraduate class. First results indicated that indeed it is possible to process surfing trails into useful knowledge structures which can later be used to produce intelligent searching.     

基于主题的网页去重

搜索引擎返回的重复网页不但浪费了存储资源,而且加重了用户浏览的负担。针对网页重复的特征,提出了一种基于主题的去重方法。该方法通过组块的思想提取出网页正文的主题,然后进行主题的相似度计算,把重复的网页去除。实验证明,该方法对全文重复和部分重复的网页都能进行准确的检测。     

基于用户兴趣分析的网页生命周期建模

网页在其生命周期内的活跃程度会随时间发生变化。有的网页只在特定的阶段有价值,此后就会过时。从用户的角度对网页的生命周期进行分析可以提高网络爬虫和搜索引擎的性能,改善网络广告的效果。利用一台代理服务器收集的网页访问量信息,我们对网页的生命周期进行了研究,给出了用户兴趣演变的模型。这个模型有助于更好地理解网络的组织与运行机理。     

Towards a contingency approach with whitelist- and blacklist-based anti-phishing applications: what do usability tests indicate?

In web browsers, a variety of anti-phishing tools and technologies are available to assist users to identify phishing attempts and potentially harmful pages. Such anti-phishing tools and technologies provide Internet users with essential information, such as warnings of spoofed pages. To determine how well users are able to recognise and identify phishing web pages with anti-phishing tools, we designed and conducted usability tests for two types of phishing-detection applications: blacklist-based and whitelist-based anti-phishing toolbars. The research results mainly indicate no significant performance differences between the application types. We also observed that, in many web browsing cases, a significant amount of useful and practical information for users is absent, such as information explaining professional web page security certificates. Such certificates are crucial in ensuring user privacy and protection. We also found other deficiencies in web identities in web pages and web browsers that present challenges to the design of anti-phishing toolbars. These challenges will require more professional, illustrative, instructional, and reliable information for users to facilitate user verification of the authenticity of web pages and their content.     

基于web软件条件下安全性测试技术与方法问题初探

由于当前web测试对于页面应用程序具有非常高的挑战性,而在当今社会用户对web页面质量要求非常高,如何在当前背景下做好基于web软件条件下安全性测试,这有着十分重要的现实意义,笔者正是从这方面入手,重点探讨基于web软件条件下安全性测试技术与方法问题,相信本文对相类似研究有着抛砖引玉的效果。 无论你在测试internet、intranet或者是extranet应用程序,web测试相对于非web测试来说都是更具挑战性的工作。用户对web页面质量有很高的期望。在很多情况下,就像业务功能一样,页面用于维护和发展公共关系,所以第一印象非常重要。     

Web prefetching through efficient prediction by partial matching

In this work we propose a prediction by partial matching technique to anticipate and prefetch web pages and files accessed via browsers. The goal is to reduce the delays necessary to load the web pages and files visited by the users. Since the number of visited web pages can be high, tree-based and table-based implementations can be inefficient from the representation point of view. Therefore, we present an efficient way to implement the prediction by partial matching as simple searches in the observation sequence. Thus, we can use high number of states in long web page access histories and higher order Markov chains at low complexity. The time-evaluations show that the proposed PPM implementation is significantly more efficient than previous implementations. We have enhanced the predictor with a confidence mechanism, implemented as saturating counters, which classifies dynamically web pages as predictable or unpredictable. Predictions are generated selectively only from web pages classified as predictable, improving thus the accuracy. The experiments show that the prediction by partial matching of order 4 with a history of 500 web pages is the optimal.     

The role of experience and innovation characteristics in the adoption and continued use of e-learning websites

With the advent of e-learning technologies in the past decade, the accessibility of training, teaching, and learning has drastically increased. The challenge for the education enterprise now is how to attract learners to their e-learning services. In this study, a technology adoption model is developed to predict the users’ intention of adoption and their continued use behavior. The results show significant evidence in support of the hypothesis. The findings indicate that perceptions of relative advantage and compatibility are significantly related to users’ intention to use e-learning. Also, the intention is significantly related to their actual use of e-learning. Furthermore, the technology adoption of learners with prior e-learning experience is different from those without prior e-learning experience. These findings may contribute to deeper understanding of e-learning users’ perceptions in terms of adoption and continued use behavior.