Media Richness and Internet Exploration: The Effects of Sounds and Navigation Control on a Website Evaluation

Abstract

Previous research has found that media richness is associated with a positive evaluation of a website. An experiment was carried out where participants were instructed to explore a website presenting a popular place: Venice, Italy. Participants were exposed (or not) to street sounds when exploring the website and had the possibility to control (or not) the photography (using a 360° navigation with their mouse) displayed on the website. The results showed that higher evaluation was associated with sounds and mouse control. The Theory of Media Richness was used to explain our results and the managerial implications for tourism were discussed.