EFFECTS OF HEDONIC COMPONENTS AND USERS GENDER ON THE ACCEPTANCE OF SCREEN-BASED INFORMATION-SERVICES

To compete successfully with other information media, screen-based inf ormation services would have to offer hedonic qualities that appeal to a wide range of users, men as well as women. To study effects of hedo nic components of information services, a software simulation of an in teractive service was designed. In an experiment, 59 female and 73 mal e subjects were exposed to this software simulation. Hedonic features (presence or absence of colour, graphics, and music) of the simulated information service were factorially varied to form eight unique treat ment configurations. Music and colour were shown to affect level of en joyment and intention to use the service. The effects varied according to gender: females showed greater intention to use the service than d id males. Males showed greater preference for the colour version. Thes e findings provide some basic design guidelines for information servic e marketers and point to the need for future research-based exploratio n of this area.