Last modified: 04/05/2006

AIS SIGHCI Research Resources
ICIS 2004 HCI Workshop
Abstracts

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1. Categorized Graphical Overviews for Web Search Results: An Exploratory Study using U.S. Government Agencies as a Meaningful and Stable Structure
   Bill Kules and Ben Shneiderman
   
   Search engines are very effective at generating long lists of results that are highly relevant to user-provided query terms. But the lack of effective overviews presents challenges to users who seek to understand these results, especially for a complex task such as learning about a topic area, which requires gaining overviews of and exploring large sets of search results, identifying unusual documents, and understanding their context. Categorizing the results into comprehensible visual displays using meaningful and stable classifications can support user exploration and understanding of large sets of search results. This extended abstract presents a set of principles that we are developing for search result visualization. It also describes an exploratory study that investigated categorized overviews of search results for complex search tasks within the domain of U. S. government web sites, using a hierarchy based on the federal government organization.
   
   
2. An Empirical Study of the Roles of Affective Variables in User Adoption of Search Engines
   Heshan Sun and Ping Zhang
   
   The current study is built upon prior research and is an attempt to explore the roles of affective variables in user technology adoption. Two different affective variables, computer playfulness and perceived enjoyment, were examined and their relationships with each other and with cognitive and behavioral variables were hypothesized. An empirical study using survey method was conducted. Analyses with the PLS technique confirmed most of the hypotheses. Our findings suggest that perceived enjoyment has a significant impact on perceived ease of use, but no direct effect on behavioral intention. Perceived enjoyment mediates the impact of computer playfulness on PEOU, which has not been studied before.
   
   
3. Learning, Performance, and Analysis Support for Complex Software Applications
   Steven R. Haynes and Thomas George Kannampallil
   
   We propose a three-part framework describing support tools for users of complex software applications such as enterprise resource planning and decision support systems. The model is motivated by the objectives of learning, performance, and analysis and is grounded in the theories of constructivism, pragmatism, and reflection respectively. This mapping is supported both by results of prior research and by a case study formative evaluation of a complex, cognitive support system developed for antiterrorism resource allocation. The work contributes to the field of system usability by providing an integrative framework linking established theoretical positions with empirical research on human-computer interaction.
   
   
4. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Two Web Site Usability Instruments
   David T. Green and J. Michael Pearson
   
   Many perspectives of user acceptance of Web sites have been examined, yet information systems research often overlooks the human-computer interaction aspects, particularly in the area of Web site usability. Web site usability has recently gained greater acceptance in information literature through the development of instruments by Palmer (2002) and Agarwal and Venkatesh (2002). This study conducted a confirmatory factor analysis of both instruments in an attempt to validate the two instruments. Our results found that the Palmer instrument exhibited satisfactory measurement properties, although allowing room for further refinement. The Agarwal and Venkatesh instrument, although useful as a practical metric, displayed poor validity for the underlying constructs that compose Web site usability. Validation of these instruments furthers their scope and potential use by researchers and practitioners in helping them better understand the capabilities of their Web sites, while providing a foundation for further refinement of the Web site usability construct.
   
   
5. Using Ratings and Response Latencies to Evaluate the Consistency of Immediate Aesthetic Perceptions of Web Pages
   Noam Tractinsky, Avivit Cokhavi, and Moti Kirschenbaum
   
   Using explicit (subjective evaluations) and implicit (response latency) measures, this study replicated and extended the findings by Fernandes et al (2003), who found that immediate aesthetic impressions of web pages are remarkably consistent. Forty participants evaluated 50 web pages in two phases. The degree to which web pages were regarded, on average, as attractive after a very short exposure of 0.5 sec. was highly correlated with attractiveness ratings after an exposure of 10 seconds. Extreme attractiveness evaluations (both positive and negative) were faster than moderate evaluations, providing convergent evidence to the hypothesis of immediate impression. Overall, the results provide direct evidence in support of the premise that aesthetic impression of the IT artifacts are formed quickly. Indirectly, the results suggest that visual aesthetics can play an important role in users' evaluations of the IT artifact.
   
   
6. A Methodology for Business Value-Driven Website Evaluation: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach
   Jungpil Hahn and Robert J. Kauffman
   
   Managers at e-commerce firms are in need of proven methods for ongoing website evaluation. However, current approaches to website evaluation are not perfectly suited to the task at hand. This paper proposes a new business value-driven approach to website evaluation, which is theoretically grounded in the economic theory of production. We view online shopping as an economic production process in which customers are using various functionalities of an e-commerce website in order to complete a purchase transaction. This view enables us to formulate a novel perspective on website performance - the ability to transform inputs (i.e., use of website functionalities) into outputs (i.e., completed purchase transactions). We propose two DEA-based metrics, InefficiencyBreadth and UnitInefficiency that help identify website functionalities that are potentially ineffective.
   
   
7. A Study of the Effects of Online Advertising: A Focus on Pop-Up and In-Line Ads
   Scott McCoy, Dennis Galletta, Andrea Everard, and Peter Polak
   
   Pop-up, pop-under, and in-line ads have been said to be intrusive, and previous findings suggest that they could have important effects on user perception and cognition. Using a 2x2 factorial design, this experimental study examines the effects of those ads. Besides a control group without ads, factors included ad placement (pop-up vs inline) and ad congruence (with the site's content or not). Results indicated that intention to return was impaired by ads; retention of website information was higher when ads were inline or when ads were not congruent with website content; and retention of ad content was higher for inline ads and those that were not congruent to the content of the website. However, contrary to expectations, intentions to return were not affected by ad placement, retention of site content was not affected by the existence of ads, and intrusiveness of ads was not affected by ad congruence.
   
   
8. Designing Tailorable Technologies
   Matt Germonprez and Fred Collopy
   
   Tailorable technologies are technologies that are modified by users in the context of their use and are around us as desktop operating systems, web portals, and mobile telephones. While tailorable technologies provide users with limitless ways to modify the technology, as designers and researchers we have little understanding of how this should affect design. In this paper we present principles from four designers to strengthen inquiry into tailorable technologies. We then apply the principles to the case of the design of a web portal. We conclude that designers need to more consciously build reflective and active design environments and gradients of interactive capabilities in order for technology to be readily modified in the context of its use.
   
   
9. Instilling Social Presence through the Web Interface
   Khaled Hassanein and Milena Head
   
   Electronic commerce is more impersonal, anonymous and automated than traditional person-to-person commerce, and as such, typically lacks human warmth and sociability. This paper explores how human warmth and sociability can be integrated through the Web interface to positively impact consumer attitudes towards online shopping. An empirical study was undertaken to investigate the impact of various levels of socially-rich text and picture design elements on the perception of online social presence and its subsequent effect on antecedents of Website attitude. Higher levels of social presence are shown to positively impact the perceived usefulness, trust and enjoyment of shopping Websites, leading to more favourable consumer attitudes. Implications of these finding for practitioners and future research are outlined.
   
   
10. The Value of Mobile Commerce to Customers
    Keng Siau, Hong Sheng, and Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah
    
    This research studies the values of m-commerce using a qualitative means-ends approach, called Value-Focused Thinking. The conceptual foundation for this research is the Work System Framework. By interviewing both current and potential m-commerce users, we captured the values of m-commerce and develop a means-ends objective network to illustrate the relationships among these values. As one of the first empirical research to assess the values of m-commerce, this research contributes to an increased understanding of mcommerce. The means-ends objective network also serves as a theoretical foundation for future research in mcommerce. For practitioners, our findings highlight the concerns and issues of customers, which are valuable for strategy formulation in m-commerce.
    
    
11. Motivations for Mobile Devices: Uses and Gratifications for M-Commerce
    Thomas F. Stafford and Mark L. Gillenson
    
    Uses and Gratifications is a media use paradigm useful for diagnosing user motivations for computer and technology usage. This study documents the exploratory processes of developing a mobile device uses and gratifications motivational inventory, beginning with qualitative inquiry and proceeding through exploratory analysis of motivational dimensions for usage. Results indicate that mobile device uses and gratifications are mainly centered on the speed and connectivity with which associated data and information services are available for busy technology users.
    
    
12. Exploring Customers' Preferences for Online Games
    Seung Baek, Young-Suk Song, Jae Kyo Seo
    
    Online content providers who use the Internet to distribute content experience an extremely competitive business environment. To survive in this environment, they have started charging a fee for the content that they provide. However, there have been very few success stories in commercializing online content. Although one of few success stories is the online game, it still has customers' psychological resistance against paying a high fee for playing games. To pay back their high R&D or development costs quickly, many online game producers have a tendency to assign high prices to their online games. Without examining customers' perceived prices for online games, many online game producers have tended to decide prices from their perspectives. Although many online game-related research works have focused on psychological and technical aspects, very few works have examined online gamers' preferences carefully. This study aims at exploring online gamers' preference by measuring their WTP (Willingness To Pay) for online games.
    
    
13. Behavioral Factors Affecting Internet Abuse in the Workplace - An Empirical Investigation
    Irene M.Y. Woon and Loo Geok Pee
    
    Internet abuse in the workplace refers to employee's use of Internet provided by the organization for non-workrelated purpose. It has not only resulted in productivity loss, bandwidth waste and legal liability, it also exposed organizations' information systems to a host of new security threats. To gain a better understanding of the factors influencing Internet abuse behavior in the workplace, this study applied the Theory of Interpersonal Behavior proposed by Triandis and investigated the effects of job satisfaction, affect, social factors, perceived consequences, habit and facilitating conditions on Internet abuse intention and behavior. Results indicated that all factors are significant at 0.05 level. Affect, social factors and habit have the greatest influence on Internet abuse intention and behavior. An interesting result is that employees with higher level of job satisfaction have a more positive affect towards Internet abuse. Implications for Internet security management are discussed.
    
    
14. A Process Tracing Study on Trust Formation in Recommendation Agents
    Sherrie Xiao Komiak and Izak Benbasat
    
    This study utilizes a processing tracing method to explore the processes of trust formation in web-based productbrokering recommendation agents (RAs). We compare and contrast the processes of trust/distrust formation in an attribute-based RA (a typical content-based RA) versus a need-based RA (a content-based RA plus need-based questions). Concurrent verbal protocols from 49 subjects were collected, transcribed, and analyzed. Our protocol analysis results show that the need-based RA elicits significantly more trust formation processes and fewer distrust formation processes than the attribute-based RA does, which explains why the level of customer trust in the need-based RA is significantly higher than the level of customer trust in the attribute-based RA. Interestingly, our results show that, for both types of RAs, the top three processes of trust formations are different from the top three processes of distrust formations. Suggestions are given on how to design more trustworthy RAs.
    
    
15. Effects of Choice Contrast and Order Sequence on Consumer Judgment and Decision in Comparison-Shopping Assisted Environment
    Chuan-Hoo Tan, Yee-Pia Chan, Yee-Pia Chan, Hock-Chuan Chan, and Hock-Hai Teo
    
    Comparison-Shopping (CS) websites, such as mySimon.com, assist consumers in managing the vast amount of information offered by multiple retailers on the Internet. Conventional wisdom would have dictated that the provision of the best set of alternatives by CS websites should lead to high consumer satisfaction and purchase propensity. However, consumers may experience decision difficulty to choose among alternatives that are nondominated (i.e., none of the alternative is inferior for all product attributes). Consequently, they may simply avoid making a decision by not committing to any purchase. Grounded on behavioral and context-dependent decisionmaking literature, this paper builds a model that explores the effects of choice content and choice order sequence on consumer behavior and explains how they can potentially alleviate the difficulty of making purchase decisions.
    
    
16. Dual-Modal Presentation of Sequential Information
    Shuang Xu, Xiaowen Fang, Jacek Brzezinski, and Susy Chan
    
    Based on Baddeley's (1986) working model and research on human attention, this study intends to design a visualauditory information presentation to: (1) minimize the interference in information processing between visual and auditory channels; and (2) improve the effectiveness of mental integration of information from different modalities. Baddeley suggests that imagery spatial information and verbal information can be concurrently held in different subsystems within human working memory. Accordingly, this research proposes a method to convert sequential textual information into its graphical and verbal representations and hypothesizes that this dualmodal presentation will result in superior comprehension performance and higher satisfaction as compared to pure textual display. Simple T-tests will be used to test the hypothesis. Results of this study will help to address usability problems associated with small-screen computers. Findings may also benefit interface design of generic computer systems by alleviating the overabundance of information output in the visual channel.
    
    
17. Spreadsheet Visualization Effects on Error Correction
    Hock Chuan Chan
    
    Spreadsheets have been used by organizations for decades. Errors in spreadsheets are commonly found in laboratory and field findings. In recent years, many exciting new visualization techniques have been developed to help users understand spreadsheet models and to check for errors. Two visualization tools were tested in an experiment for their effects on error correction. The first is a simple arrow tool which shows dependencies among cells. The second shows the inputprocess- output function of cells in addition to the dependency arrows. The experiment shows significantly better error detection with the arrow method than for the plain method (without visualization tools). Wrong data errors took more time to correct than missing data errors.