A Communications View of Web Page Perception

Abstract

This paper develops a model to measure people's perception of web pages based on the premise that the World Wide Web is a persuasive technology intentionally designed to change a person's attitudes and behaviors. The model, derived from the persuasion literature, particularly appraisal theory and the affect-as-information model, assumes that feelings induced by a web page directly influence its evaluations and the behavioral intentions (BI) of users. The model also postulates that the attitude toward the web page (A _wp ) will mediate the effects of feelings and evaluations on BI. In two studies, it is demonstrated that this model and measures based on it provide a psychometrically valid system of eliciting user reactions to web pages. The implications of this model and a number of future research issues are discussed.