Metamarkets is a financial web site offering stock quotes, investment strategies, and practical how to information for both the beginning and experienced stock market investor. Now, take a look at the pictures of the home pages of the two different sites. Consider the differences in graphics, colors, amount of text, content, and tone. You should even notice the difference between the ad banners at the top of the pages keep in mind that advertisers are often seeking an extremely specific audience and they only advertise on web pages that they think that audience will visit. These choices exclude some audiences, while encouraging others.
Aesthetic issues can affect both usability and audience appeal.
For instance, if a site uses a busy background or few or no line breaks to separate long text blocks, the pages may be extremely difficult to read and make the site unusable. On the other hand, while red text on a green background may be readable for most, few visitors will appreciate this color combination and those with color blindness will often be unable to distinguish these colors at all. On some level, aesthetic choices will always be based on individual choice. While you may not like the graphics a particular web site uses, another visitor may find them entertaining. When evaluating web sites, you may base your opinions on your own aesthetic values or you may try to put yourself in the position of a member of the target audience.