Designing Websites and Composing Music: Identifying Usability Constructs and Their Nomological Networks

ABSTRACTWebsite usability is reported to have crucial effects on online purchases, but few theoretical models thoroughly examine these effects. In this article, music composition theory is adopted to propose a theoretical model of website usability, based on the belief that composing good music is similar to designing a usable website. Nomological networks between three constructs of music (melody, harmony, and rhythm), cognitive and affective appraisals, and online purchase intention were examined. A field study was conducted to validate the psychometric properties of measurement items and the nomological networks for the proposed model. The study results demonstrate that the proposed model successfully explains a large amount of variance of the effects of website usability on online purchases and thus can be considered as an alternative theoretical model of website usability.Keywords: website usability, music composition theory, online purchasing1. IntroductionMany empirical studies of website usability had no theoretical orientations. Data are collected, but no underlying model or theory of the process exists to be confirmed or refuted. Such a theory would be very useful because there are too many alternative proposals to test by trial and error. A strong theoretical model could reduce the set of plausible alternatives to a manageable number for testing. -[Zhang & von Dran 2002, p. 11]Researchers and practitioners [Green & Pearson 2011; Karimov et al. 2011; Wells et al. 2011] have expended a considerable amount of time and money to develop usable websites where customers search, navigate, indirectly touch, feel or experience products or services before actual purchases. However, it has been reported that current websites still contain numerous usability problems including difficulty in navigation, disorientation, lack of interaction and reliability, lack of professionalism (e.g. low-quality images), irrelevant content, difficulty in reading text (e.g. different fonts, typefaces) and learning functionality (e.g. inconsistent design structures) [Lee & Kozar 2012; Treiblmaier & Pinterits 2010; Tan et al. 2009; Tung et al. 2009]. Customers have not overwhelmingly gravitated to online purchases [Casalo et al. 2008] and thus online sales still represent only seven percent of all retail sales in the U.S. [Forrester Research 2009]. There are many reasons for poorly designed websites, but this study focuses on the lack of theoretical models to guide website usability. Although such models could explain and predict the effects of web design factors on online customer perceptions and behaviors, very few theoretical frameworks exist in the electronic commerce literature [Lee & Kozar 2009]. A researcher lamented on this lack of attention, noting that "many design principles have been proposed in the cause of development and evaluation of websites. However, these principles generally lack a strong theoretical background, suggesting several principles based on existing practices with no explicit theoretical constructs" [Lee & Kim 2002 p. 130]. Given this background, the primary goal of this study is to propose a theoretical model of website usability based on music composition theory. Music composition theory [Slonimsky & Kassel 1998], defined as the study of how music is put together, provides a means of composing ear-pleasing music by appropriately combining the three major musical components of melody, harmony and rhythm. These three components are building blocks of music and how they are arranged determines the color, texture, and form of every musical composition [Wright 2000]. Music composition theory has successfully explained humans' attitude formation and behaviors toward and caused by music [Albert & Bell 2002; Bruner 1990]. The theory is appropriate as a theoretical framework of website usability in that (1) like a website designer, a music composer creates music that can influence both a consumer's feeling and perception;(2) like online consumers, music listeners develop their preference to music by integrating an evaluation developed while listening to each piece (i. …