Effects of Unity of Form and Symmetry on Visual Aesthetics of Website Interface Design

Abstract

Unity of form represents the extent to which visual objects on the screen are related in size. High levels of unity of form can be achieved by using objects with similar sizes on the screen and/or by reducing number of objects on the screen. Findings of earlier observational studies suggested that effect of unity of form on perceived visual aesthetics of website design was more evident in case of highly symmetrical webpages. The purpose of this study is to verify these findings. An experiment was conducted to systematically study effects of number of objects and number of different sizes of objects on perceived visual aesthetics of website design at high and low levels of symmetry. Perceived aesthetics was assessed using the classical/expressive dimensions. Results showed that both factors have significant effects on perceived visual aesthetics, only at high levels of symmetry and only on the classical dimension.