With the intense competition in the mobile applications (apps) market, it is imperative for app providers to understand how visual stimuli from their apps can create a positive first impression and enhance the app download rates. In the present study, the mechanism through which visual complexity influences mobile app download intention is examined. Using a combination of convenience and snowball sampling, 218 participants were recruited to take part in a single-group post-test only quasi-experimental design. The findings of the study showed that visual complexity influences mobile app download intentions through the mediating role of two future-oriented emotions (i.e. hope and anticipated regret). Additionally, the study showed that the indirect effect of visual complexity on download intentions was moderated by feature overload with the importance of visual complexity significantly reducing as perceptions of feature overload increases. The proposed model explained 46% variance in the intentions to download a mobile app. The findings not only provide practical insights for mobile app developers and publishers but also theoretical insights on consumer decision making in the pre-use context of mobile apps.

随着移动应用程序（应用程序）市场的激烈竞争，应用程序提供商必须了解其应用程序的视觉刺激如何能够产生积极的第一印象并提高应用程序的下载速度。在本研究中，研究了视觉复杂性影响移动应用程序下载意图的机制。通过便利性和滚雪球采样的组合，招募了218名参与者参加了单组仅准测试后的准实验设计。该研究的结果表明，视觉复杂性通过两种面向未来的情绪（即希望和预期的遗憾）的中介作用，影响了移动应用程序的下载意图。另外，研究表明，视觉复杂性对下载意图的间接影响已由特征过载减轻，视觉复杂性的重要性随着对特征过载的感知的增加而大大降低。提出的模型解释了46％的下载移动应用程序意图的差异。这些发现不仅为移动应用程序开发人员和发行商提供了实用的见解，而且还提供了有关在移动应用程序使用前的环境中做出消费者决策的理论见解。