Authors:Mahesh Balan et al. Abstract: E-commerce firms strive to enhance engagement by providing augmented experiences to online users. This research focuses on one such shopping experience enhancement technique—Web personalization. In this study, we examine how personalization affects online users’ perceptions and how different personalization levels differentially impact those perceptions. Drawing on mental accounting theory, we argue that personalization, by providing convenience in online buying, increases transaction utility and, thus, influence online users’ product perceptions. We conducted a laboratory experiment in a public university in Southern India where users took buying decisions at four different personalization levels: zero, low, medium, and high. The findings from this study suggest that product prices affect users’ perceived product quality, which, in turn, affects their perceived product values and, subsequently, their final purchase decision. Web personalization plays a moderating role in all cause-effect relations above. This study contributes to the existing literature on the Web personalization strategy and online user behavior. We find empirical evidence to show that personalization plays a moderating role in the relationship between user perception and intention to purchase. PubDate: Thu, 31 Mar 2022 07:24:55 PDT
Authors:Murad Moqbel et al. Abstract: Past research has explored the link between computer-mediated communication (CMC) and task performance, but it remains unclear how (i.e., under what mechanisms) CMC impacts task performance. Drawing on media naturalness theory and the stimulus-organism-response model as our theoretical framework, we develop a research model and describe how simulation-based EHR training (a type of CMC) can improve EHR-based task performance by mitigating stress. We empirically test the model with a unique experimental dataset from EHR lab assessment and questionnaires that 225 participants completed. The structural equation modeling analysis results show that simulation EHR training helped improve EHR-based task performance (both effectiveness and efficiency) by reducing perceived stress. We discuss theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and future research. PubDate: Thu, 31 Mar 2022 07:24:53 PDT
Authors:Vance Wilson et al. Abstract: As with other forms of human communication, text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) media, such as email, instant messaging, and online texting, are often used as a means to persuade others. However, unlike most other media, which feature structural bias in their support for either interpersonal or broadcast communication modes, text- based CMC supports both modes. As a result, CMC text messages frequently have ambiguous origins. We argue that individuals respond to this ambiguity by categorizing these messages based on characteristics that distinguish interpersonal messages from broadcast messages, and receivers tend to comply to a greater extent with those messages that they perceive as interpersonal. Based on these arguments, we present a fundamentally new online textual persuasion model. In empirically testing the model in an online experiment that we assessed with structural equation modeling, we found that it exhibited strong explanatory power and additional utility in augmenting existing online persuasion models. The results offer important theoretical contributions to human-computer interaction research generally and provide practical specific insights for improving persuasive communication via text-based CMC. PubDate: Tue, 29 Mar 2022 00:13:18 PDT
Authors:Sameh Al-Natour et al. Abstract: Decision aids have enjoyed extensive use in various domains. While decision aid research and practice have largely focused on making these aids more functional and utilitarian, we propose that one should also purposefully design them as effective interaction partners, especially when one deploys them in contexts that require a “human touch”, such as finance or healthcare. In this paper, we report on the results from an experiment we conducted on the effects that designing caring and informative decision aids have on how users evaluate them and, subsequently, their satisfaction with them. Our results show that using explanations and expressive speech acts can enhance the extent to which users perceive decision aids as informative and caring. These strengthened beliefs subsequently enhance the extent to which users view decision aids as competent and as having integrity and improve the interaction atmosphere, which, in turn, increases users’ satisfaction with their overall interaction with the decision aid. We discuss the study’s contributions to theory and practice. PubDate: Tue, 29 Mar 2022 00:13:17 PDT
Authors:Sofia Schöbel et al. Abstract: Gamification refers to the use of game-like elements in non-entertainment contexts to make activities more engaging and enjoyable to improve utilitarian outcomes. The gamification literature and the use of gamification in practice suggest that gamification can be a useful tool to support behavioral and psychological changes. Recent developments show that there is potential for new waves of gamification research. Therefore, we conducted a workshop at the International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI) 2021 to discuss the future of gamification with interested scholars. The discussion with 25 gamification experts led to a research agenda that supports the need for adaptive and personalized gamification designs. Together with the experts, we identify three clusters for future research: 1) the personalization of gamification concepts, 2) theories and concepts for gamified human-computer interaction, and 3) the “dark side” of gamification (e.g., addiction). We also address what the gamification concept means. Aligned with the three clusters, we provide valuable starting points for future research inquiries to help researchers better understand the nature of gamification. We also discuss the capabilities and limits of gamification. PubDate: Thu, 30 Dec 2021 20:57:26 PST
Authors:Joni Salminen et al. Abstract: When algorithms create personas from social media data, the personas can become noxious via automatically including toxic comments. To investigate how users perceive such personas, we conducted a 2 × 2 user experiment with 496 participants that showed participants toxic and non-toxic versions of data-driven personas. We found that participants gave higher credibility, likability, empathy, similarity, and willingness-to-use scores to non-toxic personas. Also, gender affected toxicity perceptions in that female toxic data-driven personas scored lower in likability, empathy, and similarity than their male counterparts. Female participants gave higher perceptions scores to non-toxic personas and lower scores to toxic personas than male participants. We discuss implications from our research for designing data-driven personas. PubDate: Thu, 30 Dec 2021 20:57:25 PST
Authors:Karen Renaud et al. Abstract: Young children routinely authenticate themselves with alphanumeric passwords but are probably not ready to use such passwords due to their emerging literacy and immaturity. They might adopt insecure coping tactics, which could become entrenched. Because children have a superior pictorial recognition ability, graphical authentication mechanisms will likely represent more suitable mechanisms for this demographic. We propose and study KidzPass, a configurable graphical authentication framework that one can use to tailor these mechanisms for children of different ages. We carried out two empirical investigations with four- to five-year-old children and with six- to seven-year-old children using personalized images as secrets (familiar faces and self-drawn doodles). KidzPass proved efficacious and our younger (four- to seven-year-old) participants mostly preferred it to text passwords. The personalized images maximize memorability but take significant time to obtain. As children mature, it might be possible to replace personalized images with generic images. Thus, we carried out a final empirical study with older children using generic images (that we chose). From this study, we found that that generic images can indeed be viable if they display particular qualities, which we enumerate. From our experiences and the research literature, we conclude by providing principles to inform efforts to design and evaluate age-appropriate authentication mechanisms for young children both from an ethical and technical perspective. PubDate: Thu, 30 Dec 2021 20:57:24 PST
Authors:Debolina Dutta et al. Abstract: How employees perceive the climate for trust and fairness of practices in an organization is a critical factor that drives employee satisfaction and engagement and contributes to sustained performance and growth. Communication between employees and top leadership is an essential mechanism that bridges the differences and helps align employees towards organizational goals. Technological innovations, such as artificial intelligence (AI)-based virtual assistants, can help leaders provide personalized interactions. Though scholars have argued the importance of AI, they have conducted relatively little work to explain its relevance in managing human resources. This study draws on social exchange theory and social response theory to investigate virtual assistants’ impact on positive organizational outcomes. Based on a time-lagged, rigorous field study, we investigated virtual assistants’ impact on creating a climate for trust, fairness, and employee outcomes, namely, their engagement and satisfaction. We also discuss the impact and implications of AI- based virtual assistants for enhancing employee outcomes. PubDate: Thu, 30 Dec 2021 20:57:24 PST
Authors:Armel Quentin Tchanou et al. Abstract: Multitasking with information technology (IT) may impact how much pleasure people experience during hedonic activities, especially multisensory activities that involve touching, listening, and watching. However, past research on IT multitasking has primarily focused on utilitarian professional contexts. Drawing from dual-task-interference theory and flow theory, we address this gap by hypothesizing how multisensory characteristics positively influence the hedonic experience and how that effect deteriorates with IT-related multitasking. In addition, we examine how personality traits influence this moderating effect. We conducted a mixed-method laboratory experiment using explicit (self-reported) and implicit measures (electrodermal activity, automatic facial analysis, and electroencephalogram) to test our hypotheses. Participants listened to music while sitting on a high-fidelity vibro-kinetic armchair (one that generates vibrations and movement perfectly aligned with the music) and engaged in simultaneous IT-related tasks. The results generally support our hypotheses and represent a call for people to mindfully avoid multitasking with their IT devices while enjoying hedonic activities. In addition, our results suggest that people high in extraversion or neuroticism personality traits are likely to be more vulnerable to IT-related deterioration effects in this context. This study contributes to explaining the multitasking phenomenon with IT during leisure activities and underlines the benefit of such activities’ sensory characteristics. PubDate: Thu, 30 Dec 2021 20:57:22 PST
Authors:Joseph S. Valacich et al. Abstract: In this essay, we describe a research journey focusing on how to analyze mouse cursor movements, typing fidelity, and data from other human-computer interaction (HCI) devices to better understand the end-user online experience. We begin by defining organizational value and how it relates to other aspects that researchers use to assess academic research quality. We then describe and contrast our research journey by demonstrating key research milestones: from achieving statistical significance to achieving practical significance and, finally, to reaching relevance to practice. We then explain how we crossed the chasm between academic research and technology commercialization (i.e., the last research mile). We conclude by describing the process one can follow to develop an initial prototype—the minimal viable product (MVP)—and how demonstrations with potential customers provides continuous insight and validation for evolving the commercial product capabilities to meet constantly changing and evolving customer and industry needs. PubDate: Wed, 29 Sep 2021 13:03:53 PDT
Authors:Atreyi Kankanhalli et al. Abstract: Health behavior change (HBC) applications hold much promise for promoting healthy lifestyles, such as enhancing physical activity (PA), diet, and sleep. Incorporating personalization strategies is seen as key to designing effective HBC applications. However, researchers and application designers lack knowledge about the different kinds of personalization strategies, how to implement them, and what strategies work. Thus, we reviewed prior empirical studies on personalization for HBC applications and developed a framework to synthesize the prior studies we identified and to provide an integrative view of the personalization strategies, their inputs, and outcomes. Our findings suggest that researchers have much potential to conduct design research that employs demographic and contextual characteristics for personalization and that examines personalization strategies that target HBC applications’ interface and channels. In terms of implementation and adoption, we call for researchers to examine unaddressed issues such as low adherence and contextual barriers for these applications. We also suggest that researchers need to systematically examine the effects of specific personalization strategies on their efficacy. Other than providing an integrative view of extant studies, our study contributes by outlining key directions for future research in this area. PubDate: Wed, 29 Sep 2021 13:03:52 PDT
Authors:Connie S. Barber et al. Abstract: Organizations have increasingly sought to develop and use game-based information systems to increase engagement among employees or customers. However, many game-based information systems have failed due to poor design. Game-based information systems’ design must align with an organization’s need or problem and users’ motives. To help designers create game-based information systems that align with an organization’s needs, we present the game- based system design framework (GSDF). Designers can use this framework to select game-based elements to support aesthetics, dynamics, and mechanics to encourage intrinsic or extrinsic motivation among users. We also create a game-based system design diagram (GSDD) and process in the spirit of UML diagrams for designers to communicate game-based information system designs. We explain how one can use the GSDF and GSDD and their value for practice and research. PubDate: Wed, 29 Sep 2021 13:03:51 PDT
Authors:Mario Passalacqua et al. Abstract: Information system (IS) gamification has been successful in many contexts. Yet, research has shown gamification’s success to vary between individuals. In this paper, we compare personalized versus non-personalized gamification in a warehouse management setting. We devised a 26-participant within-subject experiment in which we programmed goal setting and feedback gamification elements into a wearable warehouse management system to evaluate the effectiveness of personalized gamification in terms of user performance. We examined the extent to which personalized gamification succeeded by categorizing participants into one of six user types through the HEXAD scale and then evaluating their performance time and errors across user types and conditions. We found that personalized gamification is more effective than non-personalized gamification. We present and discuss the motivational mechanisms through which personalized gamification can be more effective. PubDate: Wed, 29 Sep 2021 13:03:49 PDT
Authors:Lina Zhou et al. Abstract: Artificial intelligence, which people originally modeled after human intelligence, has made significant advances in recent years. These advances have caused many to fear that machines will surpass human intelligence and dominate humans. Intelligence augmentation (IA) has the potential to turn the tension between the two intelligence types into a symbiotic one. Although IA has not gained momentum until recent years, the idea that machines can amplify human abilities has existed for many decades. Expanded from a panel discussion on Intelligence Augmentation at the 2020 International Conference of Information Systems (ICIS), we define IA in light of its history and evolution and classify IA based on its capabilities, roles, and responsibilities. Based on reviewing the IA literature in terms of research themes, enabling technology, and applications, we identify key research issues, challenges, and future opportunities. PubDate: Tue, 29 Jun 2021 23:12:34 PDT
Authors:Brian Dunn et al. Abstract: Organizations invest heavily in developing and maintaining websites to meet various transactional (e.g., online purchases) and non-transactional (e.g., influencing brand attitude and disseminating product information organizational goals. In considering non-transactional outcomes—specifically brand attitude formation and information dissemination—one finds that two literature streams emerge, although they present different recommendations. First, cognitive attitude formation research recommends designing interfaces to promote an efficient experience that takes less time and requires less movement among webpages. On the other hand, the mere exposure literature recommends that longer durations and more exposure to related ideas should improve non-transactional outcomes. To understand the relationship between these two perspectives, we tested related hypotheses in a within-subjects observational experiment with a follow-up survey 10 days later. Building on theory regarding task characteristics, we also included goal-directedness as a hypothesized moderating variable. We found that more time spent on a website was associated with greater brand attitude improvement and product knowledge retention, but that more webpage views was associated with reduced product knowledge. In addition, the task type influenced the relationships between webpages viewed and brand attitude and between time spent and product knowledge retention. PubDate: Tue, 29 Jun 2021 23:12:33 PDT
Authors:Tyler J. Noorbergen et al. Abstract: Mobile health (mHealth) systems hold great potential for supporting users in self-managing disease and engaging in a healthier life. However, given the mobile context and the multiple factors that affect a person’s health, designing mHealth systems involves much complexity and a range of pitfalls. To overcome these pitfalls, scholars have called on system designers to employ a co-design approach; that is, to involve stakeholders in all phases of the design process. However, the literature on how, when, and why designers use co-design in mHealth remains scant. To address this gap, we systematically reviewed 61 studies that co-designed mHealth systems. Our results show that co-designing mHealth systems constitutes a fragmented and rapidly evolving research field with only limited overlaps and a strong focus on the early design phases (i.e., pre-design, generative). Thereby, the co-designed artifacts cover various application contexts in disease management (e.g., heart disease, diabetes) and health promotion (e.g., physical activity, nutrition) and a diverse group of involved users, healthcare professionals, and system designers. Finally, guided by Sanders and Stappers’ (2014) co-design framework, we provide a concise overview of the most widely used methods in the different co-design phases. PubDate: Tue, 29 Jun 2021 23:12:32 PDT
Authors:Shadi Shuraida et al. Abstract: IS analysts need to acquire knowledge about users’ work processes to design high-quality systems. While researchers have proposed hands-on activities in cognitive learning theories to improve knowledge acquisition, current approaches rely on analysts verbally communicating with users or observing them perform their tasks in order to learn these work processes. We draw on social cognitive theory (SCT) to hypothesize and examine how effectively two learning approaches (an observation-only approach and an observation plus hands-on approach) help analysts better understand users’ computer-mediated work processes. Accordingly, we conducted an experimental study to compare these two learning approaches. We found that, while participants who had low prior domain knowledge about users’ work processes ended up understanding them better in the observation plus hands-on treatment than in the observation- only treatment, the difference between the two approaches was not significant for participants who had high prior domain knowledge. PubDate: Tue, 29 Jun 2021 23:12:31 PDT
Authors:Nancy J. Stone et al. Abstract: To achieve community resilience and mitigate the consequences of natural hazards, community officials must balance competing priorities for local resources and funding. Besides the challenge of dealing with multiple competing priorities, community officials face another challenge: low risk awareness of natural hazards by the public and other stakeholders. Considering that virtual reality (VR) has been used to enhance learning and to change attitudes and behaviors, animating natural hazards in VR has the potential to enhance stakeholders’ (e.g., the public, local/state/federal governments, insurance agencies, and property owners) risk awareness. Informed stakeholders make better decisions related to protective action. Therefore, we propose using VR to create a sense of presence and immersion that can provide stakeholders with hazard exposure, demonstrate a hazard’s personalized consequences, and simulate the consequences of protective action, which, in turn, can influence attitudes and behavioral intentions of the general public to take protective action. Researchers could also apply VR to other hazardous or life-threatening situations and use interdisciplinary research to identify best methods to develop realistic and credible VR that all citizens can access to help mitigate hazards and enhance community resilience. PubDate: Tue, 29 Jun 2021 23:12:30 PDT
Authors:M. Vimalkumar et al. Abstract: Scholars have increasingly focused on understanding different aspects of algorithms since they not only affect individual choices and decisions but also influence and shape societal structures. We can broadly categorize scholarly work on algorithms along the dimensions of economic gain that one achieves through automation and the ethical concerns that stem from such automation. However, the literature largely uses the notion of algorithms in a generic way and overlooks different algorithms’ specificity and the type of tasks that they perform. Drawing on a typology of tasks based on task complexity, we suggest that variations in the complexity of tasks contribute to differences in 1) their automation potential and 2) the opacity that results from their automation. We also suggest a framework to assess the likelihood that fairness concerns will emanate from automation of tasks with varying complexity. In this framework, we also recommend affordances for addressing fairness concerns that one may design into systems that automate different types of tasks. PubDate: Wed, 31 Mar 2021 11:37:40 PDT
Authors:Stephan Diederich et al. Abstract: Conversational agents (CAs) have attracted the interest from organizations due to their potential to provide automated services and the feeling of humanlike interaction. Emerging studies on CAs have found that humanness has a positive impact on customer perception and explored approaches for their anthropomorphic design, which comprises both their appearance and behavior. While these studies provide valuable knowledge on how to design humanlike CAs, we still do not sufficiently understand this technology’s limited conversational capabilities and their potentially detrimental impact on user perception. These limitations often lead to frustrated users and discontinued CAs in practice. We address this gap by investigating the impact of response failure, which we understand a CA’s inability to provide a meaningful reply, in a service context. To do so, we draw on the computers are social actors paradigm and the theory of the uncanny valley. Via an experiment with 169 participants, we found that 1) response failure harmed the extent to which people perceived CAs as human and increased their feelings of uncanniness, 2) humanness (uncanniness) positively (negatively) influenced familiarity and service satisfaction, and 3) the response failure had a significant negative impact on user perception yet did not lead to a sharp drop as the uncanny valley theory posits. Thus, our study contributes to better explaining the impact that text-based CAs’ failure to respond has on customer perception and satisfaction in a service context in relation to the agents’ design. PubDate: Wed, 31 Mar 2021 11:37:38 PDT
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