DESIGNING TOWARDS EMOTIONAL USABILITY IN CUSTOMER INTERFACES - TRUSTWORTHINESS OF CYBER-BANKING SYSTEM INTERFACES

In this research we investigate the possibility of designing a user in terface for electronic commerce systems that will evoke target feeling s in the customer. The focus is on the impact of visual design factors on the feeling of trustworthiness because of its significant effect u pon the behavior of customers using electronic commerce systems. Four empirical studies were conducted in the domain of cyber-banking system s. The subjects were cyber-banking system developers, bank personnel a nd potential customers of cyber-banking systems in Korea ranging in ag e from late teens to early forties. The first study was directed at de veloping the self-report questionnaire that faithfully reflects the em otional factors related to cyber-banking systems. The resulting questi onnaire consisted of the forty bipolar emotive differential scales rep resentative of the emotions most important in interacting with cyber-b anking systems, e.g. reliable-not reliable. The second study focused o n determining the important visual design factors from the customer's perspective. Fourteen design factors identified from subjects' descrip tions were classified into the four design categories of title, menu, main clipart and color. The third study investigated the correlations between the emotional factors and design factors. The design factors w ere found to have significant effects upon the extent of feelings rela ted to symmetry, trustworthiness, awkwardness and elegance. In the fin al study, two interfaces were designed based on the results of the thi rd study to differentiate the extent of trustworthiness evoked. The re sults indicate that it is possible to manipulate the visual design fac tors of the customer interface in order to induce a target emotion, su ch as trustworthiness. The paper concludes by discussing the implicati ons of the empirical results on the design and implementation of custo mer interfaces to electronic commerce systems in general. (C) 1998 Els evier Science B.V.