Is It Still Where I Expect It? Users’ Current Expectations of Interface Elements on the Most Frequent Types of Websites

Knowing users’ expectations about what they expect on a website and where they expect to find it is crucial for the success of a website. For the last decade, technological advances have entailed major changes in website design but the impact of these changes on users’ mental representations of web- sites remains unclear. In an online study (N = 841), we asked users to sketch their prototypical ver- sion of an online shop, a news website and a company page, thereby indicating the interface elements they expect on the website and their expected location. We compared our results to those of a pre- vious study to investigate changes in users’ mental representations of websites over time. This com- parison suggests that interface elements such as the logo, main content and navigation area are still expected in the same location although others have shifted to the rich footer area at the bottom of the website. In addition, new elements such as links to social networks have been incorporated into users’ mental representations whereas other interface elements have disappeared. By providing updated consolidated blueprint models for all three website types, we help designers to create expectation-based websites. Further implications for research and practitioners are discussed.