Consumer Perception of Online Advertising - The Effects of Animation, Ad Characteristics, Repetition and Task Relevancy on Attention and Memory

Prior advertising research on advertising perception models has mainly focused on effects that occur after consumers have been exposed to advertising stimuli. Little research has examined how consumers are exposed to advertising and the quality of visual attention during advertising exposure. This doctoral dissertation examines how consumers allocate their visual attention to online ads and how consumers memorize ads in different viewing conditions. More precisely, the dissertation focuses on how ad format and location, animation, repetition, abrupt onsets, and task relevancy affect attention to ads and memory performance. The thesis employs theories of cognitive psychology, visual marketing and consumer behavior, advertising persuasion models and computer science and applies experimental methodologies such as eye tracking besides consumers' self-reported measures. The thesis consists of four essays. Essay 1 introduces a review of relevant theory and eye tracking methodology for online advertising research. The next three essays present experimental studies. Essay 2 investigates the effects of ad format and animation on attention and memory. Essay 3 examines the effects of repetition of ads on memory. Essay 4 investigates how animation, ad format and abrupt onsets of ads affect reading performance, and how online ads are perceived during free browsing compared to an instructed reading task. Our findings indicate that attention and memory for ads were significantly affected by consumers' intentions, ad characteristics and web page contents. Consumers are more likely to be attracted by ads when browsing web sites freely without a special task. Ad characteristics, such as animation and ad format interact and influence differently on attention and memory performance for ads depending on the ad's location on a page and the surrounding page content. The thesis also tested the effects of repetition of ads as a potential strategy to improve memory for ads. A significant positive effect was found already at rather low levels of repetition. Moreover, we also tested consumers' attention to abrupt onsets of ads. We registered a significant increase of attention to abrupt onsets of ads as compared with permanent ads especially during free browsing of web pages. This thesis increases our knowledge of the role and type of ad exposure on consumers' attention by evaluating the effectiveness of advertising exposure in dynamic online environment. This research is also the first attempt to evaluate the applicability of the primary eye tracking measures for online advertising. For advertisers, media traders and graphic designers this research proposes new strategies about how to adjust ad format and placement, animation and repetition to break through advertising clutter and reduce consumers' ad avoidance to develop stronger brand awareness and preferences

Evaluating usability of e-commerce sites by tracking eye movements

The majority of existing e-commerce design guidelines has been derived by conducting heuristic evaluations, without reporting the involvement of the users themselves. This research provides clarification on a number of existing web design guidelines for e-commerce sites based on empirical studies with users. Four studies were conducted and each study focused on a specific set of design guidelines as found in the literature. A combined qualitative and quantitative approach has been used, including a state-of-the-art technique, eye tracking. The eye movement data were complemented by user-profile data elicited through background questionnaires and user-perception data as captured through semi-structured interviews. The first study investigated users’ initial impressions of homepages of e-commerce sites. The second study examined users’ adaptability to persistent or varied placement of design elements. The third and fourth studies explored the effect of the presentation format of e-commerce web pages: the first in terms of the proportion of images, and the second in terms of how key icons related to an e-commerce transaction were presented. On the whole, the results of the studies corroborated existing design guidelines, but they also identified potential refinements. The thesis contributes both methodologically and empirically to Human-Computer Interaction. The combined methodological approach enables insight into the user experience that spans behavioural aspects such as visual search behaviour and visual search performance data, and subjective aspects such as user expectations and preferences. The empirical outcomes amplify the design guidelines from a user’s perspective

Graphical Research Models in the Information Systems Discipline

Graphical models facilitate communicating hypothesized or tested relationships between variables and are welcome in information systems publications. However, insufficient knowledge exists about design conventions for such models, lowering their communicative effectiveness. This paper investigates how graphical research models are used in the information systems literature. Theoretically, the article bears upon the perspective of prototypicality and cognitively effective design of conceptual modeling notations. Based on an analysis of 134 research models from 589 articles in information systems journals, we tentatively demonstrate prototypical features of visual research models and outline many unique graphical variations. We develop a set of hypotheses on how prototypicality influences preferences for research models and their comprehensibility and describe how we intend to test these hypotheses empirically. A broader goal of this research is to develop an effective modeling notation for research models to support researchers in constructing unambiguous visual models for their research

The Polite Pop-Up: An Experimental Study of Pop-Up Design Characteristics and User Experience

Pop-up boxes have been widely used to catch users’ attention and highlight specific information. Yet, according to previous research, there is a high degree of perceived irritation and dissatisfaction related to pop-ups. In this study, we explore the user experience of what is referred to as “polite pop-up,” i.e., a modal pop-up, created based on click events. The intention was to eliminate negative perceptions that pop-ups usually generate. The research method involves a constructed user test of a prototype of a website where polite pop-ups were placed in the interface. Thirteen users participated, where most of the users noticed the polite pop-up and voluntarily chose to access the information within the pop-up. The contribution includes increased insight into the relation between polite pop-up and user satisfaction, as well as design implications for user-centered design.  

Avoiding Ad Avoidance: Factors Affecting The Perception Of Online Banner Ads

This dissertation examined the effect of search type, ad saliency, and ad repetition on the perception of online banner advertisements. In the first study, 48 student participants conducted simulated search tasks using mixed factorial design where search type (known-item vs. exploratory) was manipulated within-subject and the banner saliency level (low (black and white) vs. medium (color) vs. high (color animation)) was manipulated between subjects. The results showed a significant effect for search type, such that during an exploratory search task the participants had a higher average number of eye fixations on the banner ads compared with known-item search. In addition, there was a significant difference between high and low ad saliency levels, such that participants exposed to low salient ads had a higher average number of eye fixations on the banner ads as compared with high salient ads. There was no significant effect of ad repetition on ad perception. A second study replicated the original experimental design but used four novice Internet users. The results from the second study provide preliminary support to the asymptotic habituation model, which predicts an inverse decline of an orienting response to banner ads as a function of repetition. This dissertation concludes with applicable design recommendation for banner ad deployment to ensure visibility while maintaining a positive user experience.Doctor of Philosoph

Visual design cues impacting food choice : a review and future research agenda

This review aims to tackle the challenge of understanding how visual design cues can affect behavioural outcomes in a food context. The review answers two key questions: (1) What are the effects of the most important visual design cues on behavioural outcomes and how can they be explained? (2) What are the research gaps in this area? We start from a comprehensive taxonomy of visual design cues delineating the most important visual design cues. Next, we evaluate the extant research based on a structured, narrative literature review on visual design cues in the food domain. We differentiate between object processed and spatially processed visual design cues in food choice contexts and show how they affect behavioural outcomes through a range of psychological processes (attention, affective-, cognitive- and motivational reactions, food perceptions and attitudes). We end with recommendations which take into account the current food store context, the state-of-art in measuring psychological processes and behavioural outcomes and the specific food-, person- and context-related moderators. This review offers guidance for research to untangle the complexity of the effect of visual design cues in a food choice context

Desmitificando el valor de las imágenes de celebridades en sitios web de establecimientos de alojamiento turístico

La presencia de celebridades en el diseño Web se considera valiosa por sus influenciasen el atractivo visual y la credibilidad percibidos, así como en el tiempo dedicado por losusuarios de la Generación Y a ver los sitios. La investigación y las evidencias empíricas alrespecto son escasas, lo que compromete la efectividad de su uso en páginas Web. Se hizouna investigación causal con un experimento verdadero y rastreo ocular en el que participaron126 sujetos. Los hallazgos refutan esas ideas y revelan que la presencia de celebridadesen esos contenidos puede ser contraproducente para las empresas

Designing to assist older adults’ navigation in e-commerce websites

The growth of the older population has drawn attention and interest in investigating approaches to help older people to live independently for longer, including the use of Web technology. For example, with online shopping, older consumers will no longer need to carry heavy shopping loads as the goods purchased can be delivered to the house. However, the usage of online shopping among older adults is still low. Furthermore, it has been reported that older adults often experience disorientation while navigating websites. This low usage of online shopping and also disorientation motivates this research. To gain a better understanding on how older adults navigate on e-commerce website and challenges experienced, an observation on older adults’ navigation with an online grocery shopping site was conducted. The study found that technological experience was helpful in easing web navigation. Inexperienced participants were found to face more difficulties while navigating the website than the experienced users, and main difficulties included identifying the ‘add to cart’ button, finding items in menu lists, finding the main menu, and changing the website’s default shopping settings. The difficulties were manifested as complex navigation paths and long task completion times. As difficulty in identifying the ‘add to cart’ button was observed frequently, ‘add to cart’ buttons were investigated further. An evaluation of the ‘add to cart’ button designs conventions on 51 websites was conducted to assess existing button designs against design guidelines for older users. This review highlighted the potential areas for improvement with regard to design for the older users, including the use of colour, focus indicators, contrast ratio and font size. A co-design study was conducted to understand how older users would design e-commerce web pages. Several objects were selected frequently by the older adults for inclusion in the e-commerce websites, that is, product images, price, and an ‘add to cart’ button. Some other objects were selected for inclusion depending on what type of website it was. For example, quantity selection was selected for cheap, multiple purchase items (e.g. groceries), whereas descriptions, reviews and shipping/return information was deemed important to the older adults for expensive, single-item purchases (e.g. assistive technology). The study also investigated older adults’ designs in terms of physical placement of the ‘add to cart’ button, and their designs, the button was most often placed close to the quantity selection and/or the price. The outcomes from these three studies provided design input for the prototype developed in the fourth study. In this fourth study, a ‘senior friendly’ and a ‘senior unfriendly’ design were compared. The two websites were developed and tested with two tasks, that is, a navigation task and shopping. Participants compared the two websites and answered questions pertaining to ease of performing the tasks. This study provides empirical evidence of the benefits on the users’ performance from the use of ‘senior-friendly’ design. The outcomes of this research have contributed to the existing knowledge of what designs could help older users’ navigation. The data provide support for new recommendations that an object that is important and frequently accessed (e.g. main menu) should always be visible to users rather than disappearing when scrolling down the page or appearing only when the cursor is in a particular position, and ‘buy boxes’ on e-commerce websites should be included in order to make important objects such as ‘add to cart’ buttons stand out