Making a Visual Impression (or Not): Current Design Practices of Nutritional Websites.
Understanding the influence of visual design, as the access point for online health communication, is key as Americans are increasingly sickened by an obesity epidemic. Nutritional websites that deliver critical health information should be considered as a potential strategy to fight against the grave consequences of obesity, as research indicates that consumers are consistently turning to the Internet as a resource for health information. Focusing on nutritional websites, this study analyzes the use of visual design principles that are known to greatly influence first impressions and appeal of the information from the user's perspective. The results suggest there are opportunities for improvement to the online communication of nutritional information to increase the likelihood of users' favorable first impressions, the critical first steps for nutritional information delivery goals.
a School of Media and Journalism , The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Allison J
AJ
Lazard
b Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations , The University of Texas at Austin.
Anthony
A
Dudo
b Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations , The University of Texas at Austin.
Tessa
T
Dennis
b Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations , The University of Texas at Austin.
Mary Grace
MG
Ewald
b Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations , The University of Texas at Austin.
Brad
B
Love
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001296:Audiovisual Aids; D003116:Color; D003142:Communication; D003256:Community Participation; D003196:Computer Graphics; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000379:methods*; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult