The differentiated nature of visual power: an investigation into the effect of cultural and educational background in the aesthetic responses of website users

People continuously make aesthetic choices on the basis of the relative power of visual stimuli. With regard to websites, measuring visual power can be used to predict the effectiveness of aesthetic elements in attracting audience attention. Moreover, research suggests that the perception of visual power is not a fixed or universal response; it varies between people of different backgrounds. This thesis investigates the aesthetic elements that make websites desirable for audiences of different cultural and educational backgrounds, and that enable web pages to better communicate information and affective experience. It tests the visual appeal of websites with groups of university students from the disciplines of Communication Design and Information Technology, and from both Australia and Taiwan, investigating variations in affective responses. The investigation adopts Kress and van Leeuwens’ coding orientation for visual modality, that is, abstract coding, naturalistic coding, sensory coding and scientific/ technological coding (1996, p. 107). Cleveland (2005) applies these coding categories to ascertain the visual power of magazine design. The present study applies them to four categories of digital design to establish the key factors leading to website preference or selection. A questionnaire using a 10-point Likert-scale established students’ affective responses to the four categories of digital design. The results show that both Dynamic Impact and Aesthetic Appeal emerge as underlying dimensions of visual presentation and that these vary for students of different cultural and educational backgrounds. In measuring and assessing the contribution of web aesthetics to visual appeal, the study serves as a useful reference for website designers.