Are you trying to make your website more user-friendly?
A new study says a smile is all you need. Research done by Li Gong of Ohio State University suggests that the simulated emotions of digital characters online could have a large impact on potential customers who view and interact with them.
The study found that digital characters improved sales when they acted consistently happy. “When a digital character can’t pick up emotional cues in text, it’s better to be happy, even if the topic or product is sad,” Gong says. “The age-old idea that positivity outweighs negativity also applied here.”
Gong believes the importance of digital characters will continue increasing in the future, since today’s younger generations are growing up with computers and paying more attention to digital beings. As technology improves, Gong says people will react even more strongly to realistic-looking characters on the internet.
Photo by smileyland.
FranchiseBrief.com on April 3rd, 2007 at 9:17 am
The brand recognition and positive message that smileys send out is amazing. I used to work for an advertising agency and we tried to use smileys in most of our marketing materials (when it was in accordance with the target and market of course!). Smileys reach everyone from 7 to 77 years old!