Edinburgh Napier University

  We are fundamentally social animals: we are geared to understanding each other; to gauging each other's moods and states of mind; and we are very adept at judging each others personalities. This ability to judge personality can also be generalized to a range of interactive technology including web sites. We present evidence that judgments of personality of different genres of website are not only internally consistent but are also correlated with perceptions of the sites' usability and aesthetics. It is proposed that this approach may be helpful in designing websites which are not only usable and attractive, but are also more predictable and better tailored to their target users. The vocabulary of personality traits should also support clearer communication between designers and clients.