Kansei website interface design: Practicality and accuracy of Kansei Web Design Guideline

Recent development in the literature on website user experience has indicated that emotional experience has become very important to users. Although emotion has been included in the available website design guideline in the past, it is still considered within the aspect of functionality. Recently, a guideline to develop website interface from the perspective of user's emotion was established. The guideline, named Kansei Web Design Guideline (KWDG), is at the moment the one and only available reference for designers to design a website catered to user's emotion. Although KWDG was tested for its validity, no study has been performed to investigate its practical implementation in real world. This research was performed to assess the practicality of the guideline by developing website interface according to the guideline and making a comparative analysis of the perception of expert designers and common users towards the websites. In its procedure, three emotional concepts were selected and the guideline was carefully followed. Self-reporting method, card sorting and think-a-loud technique were used in the evaluation procedure. Principal Component Analysis was then performed to analyse the successful implementation of the guideline, and comparative analysis was performed to show the similarity and differences of the perception by two subject groups. The result shows that the implementation of the guideline was successful and that there is a match of Kansei as perceived by both subject groups. The outcome provides sound reference to website designers in designing successful Kansei website, and gives useful evidence to the future implementation of the guideline in the real world.