How homepage aesthetic design influences users’ satisfaction: Evidence from China

•Effect of homepage’ aesthetics on users’ satisfaction is studied, based on S-O-R.•The effects of key design elements on homepage aesthetics are studied.•The evidence is from China.•Aesthetic formality has a positive impact on aesthetic appeal.

In the product emotional design era, the website homepage design, especially the aesthetic design, has become a key factor that influences users’ first impressions, attitudes and behaviors. Based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory, the current study examines the mechanism through which the aesthetic design of a comprehensive job-hunting website homepage affects users’ satisfaction. Emotion and perceived ease of use were used to describe users’ internal evaluation to the homepage (i.e. organism). The Structural Equation Modeling method was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The empirical evidence shows that aesthetic formality does not have a significant impact on positive arousal, but it has positively influences on energetic arousal through its impact on aesthetic appeal. The other hypotheses proposed in this study are all been supported. The additional results, i.e. the effects of three key design elements on homepage aesthetics, are found. The aim of this study was to provide practical recommendation in the establishment of a pattern of webpage aesthetics that influences users’ satisfaction.