VisAWI - the Visual Aesthetics of Websites Inventory
Websites must not only offer exciting content and be easy to use - their design also plays a major role. The design and therefore the aesthetics and beauty of a website are becoming increasingly important. Above all, the first impression is crucial: Website aesthetics have a door-opening function here and play a part in deciding whether a user stays on a site at all.
Web aesthetics are generally an important construct of the user experience. Aesthetics influence a large number of other factors and constructs such as usability, satisfaction, willingness to revisit or purchase. It is therefore important that the aesthetics of a website are adequately recorded. The VisAWI (Visual Aesthetics of Websites Inventory) was developed for this purpose. This captures four central aspects of web aesthetics from the user's perspective: simplicity, variety, colourfulness and artistry. In an intensive research process, the visual aesthetics of more than 100 websites were tested in a total of ten studies with over 4000 respondents. This resulted in the VisAWI with 18 questions and the short version VisAWI-S with 4 questions.
Materials for the VisAWI
Thielsch, M. T. & Moshagen, M. (2014) Manual for the VisAWI (Visual Aesthetics of Websites Inventory) and the short version VisAWI-S (Short Visual Aesthetics of Websites Inventory).
Download Manual Version 1.0
Manual Version 1.0 in English
The VisAWI can also be downloaded directly in the following paper versions:
- VisAWI paper questionnaire: German version
- VisAWI paper questionnaire: English version
- VisAWI-S paper questionnaire: German short version
- VisAWI-S paper questionnaire: English short version
- VisAWI and VisAWI-S: All paper questionnaires in German and English as a PDF and Word document in a .zip file
In addition there is also a
Publications on VisAWI
Moshagen, M. & Thielsch, M. T. (2010).Facets of visual aesthetics.International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 68, 689-709.Download Draft-PDF Request final PDF
Moshagen, M. & Thielsch, M. T. (2013).A short version of the visual aesthetics of websites inventory.Behaviour & Information Technology, 32 (12), 1305-1311.Download Draft-PDF Request Final PDF
Hirschfeld, G. & Thielsch, M. T. (2015).Establishing meaningful cut points for online user ratings.Ergonomics, 58 (2), 310-320.Download Draft-PDF Request Final PDF
Thielsch, M. T. & Moshagen, M. (2011).Erfassung visueller Ästhetik mit dem VisAWI.In H. Brau, A. Lehmann, K. Petrovic & M. C. Schroeder (Hrsg.), Usability Professionals 2011 (S. 260-265). Stuttgart: German UPA e.V..Download finales PDF
Thielsch, M. T., Spieth, J.-H., Jahn, M., Hirschfeld, G. & Koller, F., (2014).Der VisAWI im Praxiseinsatz: Best Practices, neue Benchmarks und neue Entwicklungen.UP14 – Vorträge. Stuttgart: German UPA.Link zum Beitrag
FAQ
You are welcome to use the VisAWI or VisAWI-S to test your own website! We would be particularly pleased if you could tell us about your experiences afterwards or even provide us with anonymised test data for our benchmarking. In this case, or if you would like to use the VisAWI in another way, simply contact us at thielsch[at]uni-muenster.de.
Important: If you use the VisAWI, please always cite us accordingly - i.e. in project reports or publications according to the above citations, in the test itself
with a short reference to www.VisAWI.de or "Moshagen & Thielsch (2010)", thank you!
As scientists, we are delighted when our tools are used in practice - which is why the use of VisAWI is free of charge. However, the currency of science is citations. Therefore, please cite us in your VisAWI reports as described in the manual.
Aesthetics are perceived and evaluated very quickly. Accordingly, a test person typically processes the VisAWI within 2 to 3 minutes.
Information on this can be found in the VisAWI manual.
Ideally, you can compare your test value with a reference value, for example with a benchmark or a previous evaluation. For completely new websites, we have defined a critical threshold value of 4.5 - if this is exceeded, a website is more likely to be rated positively. You can find more information on this in the VisAWI manual.
Currently in German and English, as soon as other language versions have been translated and checked, you will find them in the VisAWI manual.
The VisAWI is the result of a co-operation between two researchers, Morten Moshagen and Meinald Thielsch. Both are psychologists and have been involved in the evaluation of websites and the construction of questionnaires for many years. You will find them both at the Universities of Kassel and Münster:
Prof Dr Morten Moshagen
Institute of Psychology and Education
University of Ulm
Prof. Dr Meinald Thielsch
Chair of Occupational and Environmental Psychology
University of Wuppertal
Yes, you will find a lot of information on this in the VisAWI manual.
Aesthetics is one of the key features of a website - and the first thing a user notices. Aesthetics are therefore very important for the first impression - or also to differentiate a website from others.
There are only a few gender differences in the perception of website aesthetics (see VisAWI manual), and there is also a general consensus on good design. Such differences are mostly based on content rather than aesthetics and arise from the different interests of different people. Aesthetic experience itself is a process that begins very early in visual perception. There are few differences between people in these basic perceptual processes (cf. Thielsch & Hirschfeld, 2012; Tuch et al., 2012).
