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Color Preference Test |
| Introduction Technology Issues and Decisions Phase I: Color Preference Test Phase II: Shades of Difference Phase III: Website Preferences Phase IV: Alternative Presentations of Identical Content
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Phase I | Experiment Design Experiment DesignIntroduction Initial research into color preference showed that blue is generally the most popular color both in gender and cultural studies (Chattapadhyay, Gorn, & Darke, 2000; Hotzschlag, 2000; Khouw, 1995; Lee & Barnes, 1989/1990; Pantone, 1999). Other research with children showed the males preferred blue and green while females preferred yellow and red in website design ((Passig & Levin, 1999). The moon picture taken by Lin Lin became the basis of the first website design. Using it and the colors identified in the Passig and Levin study, an introductory text, links, and a questionnaire were developed. Since not only color selection but also reasons for the color selection were considered important, all of this was incorporated into the questionnaire design. Because the Moonscape picture was so artistic and aesthetically-pleasing, it was decided that it needed to be balanced by something more technological. Lin was asked to take pictures using the technopets, computerized toys designed to look and act like pets, so that a more technological looking website could be developed. The research team thought that it was important to determine if the type of material inherent in the website influenced the choice of color. As with "Moonscape," text was added as an introduction to the "Technopets" website as were links. Thus, two parallel websites were designed using four identical color preferences among ITI (Information, Technology, and Informatics) undergraduate students and LIS (Library and Information Science) graduate students at SCILS. The six character hexidecimal codes were used in order to insure browser-safe colors: blue (#000099), yellow (#FFFF99), red (#CC0000), green (#006600). These four color codes were selected based on the analysis of earlier research and for two additional reasons: to obtain attractive visual effects and to ensure that the colors used are a consistent blue, yellow, red, and green. To control the color display during the experiments, the same brand monitors/computers with the same settings were used so that all students were shown precisely the same color. It was considered important that the links from the two websites reflect the artistic, the technological, and the societal aspects of the topic. As a result, the link names were carefully considered before being added. It was also hoped that these choices would indicate whether the artistic or technological aspects of the website influence interest in additional websites. The questionnaire reflected these concerns by asking both which link they chose and what they expected find at the chosen link. (Links led to a "dead end" with the words "thank you for choosing this site.") Websites Designed for the Experiment Evaluation Form Project C.O.P.E.: Content,
Organization, Preference, Evaluation
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