Conference article

Qualities of usefulness; usability and desirability play a central role in the good design of all digital products and digital environments such as websites (Buchanan; 2000). In the literature of e-Commerce website development; qualities of usability and usefulness have received the main attention of researchers; which were mainly based on the work pioneered by Nielsen and his associates since mid 1990s. Since then; web designers compete to provide higher functionality and features to simulate the physical shopping environment. However; as e-Commerce sites intensify their effort to provide persuasive shopping experience for their users; it is then necessary to look beyond usefulness and functional usability. As evident from previous literatures; the element of product desirability (Norman; 2004; Spillers; 2004; Desmet & Hekkert; 2002) has been shown to have an important decisive role in the product selection. Similarly; product desirability can offer an emotional connectivity in e-Commerce websites to portray positive experience in the digital shopping environment. For example; in the physical world; retailing businesses concentrate on store design and layout to portray positive experience to attract consumers. It is unlikely for a potential consumer to go into a dark and messy store; to look for a product no matter how good the quality of the product offered. Correspondingly; e-Commerce businesses should stress on how to deliver the best experience at first glance to potential consumer by providing a desirable digital shopping environment. An e-Commerce website that embeds affective appeal is seen to offer consumer a positive experience visiting the website.

The idea is supported by the pragmatism in e-Commerce existence up to date. As technology advances and e-Commerce rapidly matures; most e-Commerce websites are demonstrating equally good design features in terms of functionality and usability. Consequently; with all other factors being equal; what may allow an e-Commerce to stand out is its ability to engender favourable consumer experiences and affect (Li & Zhang; 2005). Moreover; due to the luxury they get in cyberspace; today’s e-Commerce websites users have become sophisticated and sceptical. They are now looking for emotional connectivity in everything they see. Norman (Norman; 2002) and Desmet (Desmet & Hekkert; 2002) have also supported that it has now become more and more important to include experiential and emotional quality in designs. Therefore; e-Commerce websites should induce desirable consumer experience and affect that influences its user’s perception of the website. This is ultimately seen to enhance the success and outreach potential of their online business.

Affective quality; e-Commerce; emotion; Kansei Engineering; online clothing; web design