Don`t Make It Too Complex - How surface credibility of websites is affected by visual aesthetics.

Abstract

Complexity is found by this study to have an impact on users perception of attractiveness and credibility of a webpage in a short exposure. This indicates that complexity is an important property of visual aesthetics and should be considered when creating designs. It was found to be a linear relationship between degree of complexity and both perceptions of credibility and attractiveness indicating that users prefer simpler designs. Although not too simple as indications were made that the least complex webpages were found slightly boring. The study also looked into how differences between conventional and unconventional navigation and logo might influence credibility, but no significant difference was found. There were also found a correlation between attractiveness and credibility supporting previous findings of Fogg and Robins & Holmes. This study supports the notion that aesthetics is an important factor in credibility judgements and that particularly complexity is an important influencer of aesthetics especially in a short exposure.