The notion of ‘
stickiness’ is shorthand for attracting visitors and keeping them there (Cohen, 2002). Festa (1999) notes NetRatings analyst Peggy O’Neill’s definition of
stickiness as: “a measure of how engaging you are.” Sanchez (N.D.) similarly sees ‘
stickiness’ as involving Web sites: “you want to go back to again and again”. Sanchez argues there is a cycle of
stickiness—the more people visit your site, the more they rely on it and trust you, and the more you generate revenue. For Sanchez, then: “
Stickiness = relationships = loyalty = revenues”. Haywood (2006) unpicks this notion of
stickiness and relates it to Miller’s use of Gell’s notion of the ‘aesthetic trap’ (Miller, 2000). Miller examined the commercial and personal Web sites of Trinidadians, and noted the importance of the social in the design of the Web sites. Miller characterised the Web sites as creating ‘aesthetic traps’, where the notion of aesthetics refers broadly to the visual characteristics of Web sites: “as attempts to create aesthetic traps that express the social efficacy of their creators and attempt to draw others into social or commercial exchange with those who have objectified themselves through the internet” (Miller, 2000, p. 6). Miller also suggests that Web site visuals are also used to align the Web site’s audience with its creators, as a signal for an ‘appropriate’ audience (Haywood, 2006; Ellis and Haywood, 2006).
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Applying Bourdieu to eBay's Success and Socio-Technical Design