The effects of website designs, self-congruity, and flow on behavioral intention

The current study examines the effects of web interface designs on a consumer's behavioral intention in the context of online retailing. In so doing, the study investigates how initial self-congruity and flow affect the ways consumers evaluate interface designs and form a behavioral intention. The analysis was based on 673 responses collected via an online survey evaluating clothing retail sites. The results indicate that a consumer makes an instantaneous judgment of the congruity between the self and the site images immediately upon visiting the site, which in turn biases the way he/she evaluates specific design elements of the website. The results also show that a consumer's flow state with the website mediates the effects of design evaluations on his/her purchase intention from the site. The flow state is most significantly determined by the evaluation of visual elements, followed by information/navigation designs as well as transaction designs.