Analysis of the influence of the color aesthetic element on trust in mobile commerce interfaces

Mobile commerce has become increasingly present in daily life, especially due to the ease of consumers accessing applications on tablets and smartphones. In this context, the color element seems to play an important role in user experience and consumer behavior. The present study is descriptive and analyzes the influence of color as an aesthetic element on the trust perceived by m-commerce consumers. At first, the paper presents the theoretical framework of mobile commerce, followed by the literature regarding trust in m-commerce, as well as HCI and color aesthetics. A quantitative survey with 15 ordinal scale items was developed and applied to a sample of 361 m-commerce users to test four research hypotheses. This research used screens simulating the consumer’s purchase path into app shopping, maintaining the same interface framework, and changing the colors presented for each group. Statistical analysIs was performed to test the correlation between aesthetic perception and trust, the influence of color changes on the perception of trust, and the suitability for m-commerce users. As a result, we found that there is a correlation between aesthetic perception and trust and that the color gray contributed to an increase in this perception compared to blue and orange colors. Also, data showed that users seem to perceive changes in color disposition on an m-commerce website. The main managerial contribution is to guide website development and design with a greater perception of consumer trust, which has proved to be crucial to managing companies’ marketing strategies and customer success. It could be done by using neutral colors in app interfaces and investing on usability.