A short version of the visual aesthetics of websites inventory

The present paper addresses a need for a brief assessment instrument to measure perceived visual aesthetics of websites. A short version of the Visual Aesthetics of Websites inventory (VisAWI; Moshagen and Thielsch 2010 Moshagen, M., Thielsch, M. T., 2010. Facets of visual aesthetics. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 68, 689–709. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2010.05.006[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) called VisAWI-S was developed and evaluated in three studies comprising 1673 participants in total. The results indicate that the VisAWI-S is a reliable measure that captures a single dimension of perceived visual aesthetics and provides a good approximation to the full-length version. Convergent validity was established by a strong relationship to overall appeal. Evidence for divergent validity was obtained by weaker correlations to perceived usability, pragmatic quality and quality of content as well as by absence of a significant correlation to participants’ mood. In addition to this, the VisAWI-S was found to be substantially related to the intention to revisit a website. Overall, the results indicate that the VisAWI-S may gainfully be employed to measure perceived visual aesthetics of websites when assessment times must be kept to a minimum.