• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Design Studies Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.130-131
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• 2004

• Archives of design research
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• v.19 no.4 s.66
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• pp.187-204
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• 2006

The brand personality of online products and services is know as its e-brand personality. Although, in the competitive conditions of online markets, e-brand personality is agreed to be an important factor, few studies have suggested how to establish e-brand personality through the visual design of web sites. This study identifies and verifies causal relationships between the visual attributes of web pages and e-brand personalities. The first identifies four major dimensions of e-brand personality on diverse web sites. The second uses 52 experimental home pages to identify key visual attributes associated with those four personality dimensions. The third is a confirmatory study with 16 experimental web sites that verifies causal relationships between visual attributes and e-brand personalities. The results show that two visual attributes, 'simplicity' and 'cohesion,' help to establish a 'bold' personality. Three attributes, 'contrast,' 'density,' and 'regularity,' affect whether a site has an 'analytical' personality. 'Contrast,' 'cohesion,' 'density,' and 'regularity' all influence whether a web site is perceived to have a 'friendly' personality. 'Regularity' and 'balance' were expected to affect the 'sophisticated' personality dimension, but no such impact was observed. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications, limitations, and future research directions.