Beedie Professor Dianne Cyr nets prestigious Most Cited Paper Award

Professor Dianne Cyr

Dianne Cyr, a professor of management information systems at the Beedie School of Business has received an award for most cited paper from the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. The prestigious award is given to the paper with the highest number of citations (excluding self-citations) between 2010 and 2012, and is a strong measure of the paper’s reach within the academic community and beyond.

The winning paper, ‘‘Colour appeal in website design within and across cultures: A multi-method evaluation’’, was written with co-authors Milena Head (McMaster University), and Hector Larios (School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University).

The research investigates the impact of colour on the online user, and whether there is a difference in response among cultures. Using three different types of data collection; survey, eye tracking; and interviews, the researchers analysed response to different colour schemes used in a test website. The researchers found that cultural differences in colour appeal do indeed exist, influencing user trust, satisfaction and loyalty in a website.

For an e-commerce website, these factors are extremely important. “In order for a website to be accepted, it must be culturally relevant and culturally adapted,” explains Cyr, adding that when the user interface is localised in this way, user trust, satisfaction and loyalty increase. Although the research is even more relevant today, with increases in numbers of people shopping online, few companies have localised their sites.

Although Cyr is no stranger to awards like this, she still values the recognition. “It feels wonderful,” she admits, acknowledging the recognition by peers and publisher. “People are citing the paper, and that is a good thing.”

While Cyr does receive feedback from colleagues and peers about her papers, building strong relationships for future collaborations, she rarely gets feedback from end users implementing her suggestions. However, another most cited paper on perceived social presence did garner a phone call from a government department. Cyr’s research had shown that women are more strongly influenced by the perceived sociability and warmth of a website than men. The department wanted to incorporate her theory into the design of a new website focused specifically on women.

As Cyr says, “As academics we work very hard to publish papers. The fact that they are recognized by the academic as well as the practitioner community is very gratifying.”