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Invloed van ontwerpelementen op vertrouwen in een online juridische dienstverlener

Zeeuw, Erik de (2012) Invloed van ontwerpelementen op vertrouwen in een online juridische dienstverlener.

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Abstract:BACKGROUND in this study the aim is to test whether the experience of trust and trust intentions by customers is influenced by four test variables pertaining to four specific design elements. Design-elements are characteristics within a website which can attribute positively or negatively to the experience of trustworthiness of the website. The elements have been drafted from research literature, a pre-study and the practical knowledge of the client. In the end the following four design elements have been chosen to be studied as independent variables: - The presence or absence of a social (presence) cue - The specific moment of the input of personal data - The presence or absence of content-personalization - The presence or absence of a specific contract formulation. The dependent variable in this study is trustworthiness by which we mean the feeling of trust the users of the online service experience which is generated by the initial contact with the online service. This variable consists of benevolence, competence and integrity of the service provider. The presupposition being that if the service provider has high levels of these subvariables people will be more willing to expose themselves and a higher intention to submit to certain behavior on the online service. METHOD The study uses two prototypes for an online notary service which offers the composition of a cohabitation agreement. One of these prototypes will contain the four design-elements (experimental group) while the other does not (control group). The population of this study consists of users of an online notary service. The population consisting of sixty pairs of test persons is equally distributed to either one of the groups. Afterwards a survey is used to test whether or not the prototype with design elements elicits more initial trust than the control group prototype without the design elements. In addition to the survey twenty pairs have been interviewed to test for prior expectations and to get qualitative data about the experiences pertaining to the website. Finally during the interview questions were asked to test whether or not the design elements have influenced the level of trust within this group of respondents. RESULTS The users who worked with the prototype with design elements reported a significant higher level of trust in the online service compared to the control group. In addition the quantitative analysis showed that people working with the prototype with design elements experienced a higher amount of social presence compared to those working with the prototype without. Qualitative analysis did not contribute to these findings. Further, there was a strong preference for the input of personal information later on in the process and an immediate request to provide personal influence is negatively related to the amount of experienced trust. People consider the presence of content personalization as positive and like to know the content of the contract beforehand. The qualitative analysis did not show a link between these last two positive judgements to increased trust but the quantitative analysis did show a positive correlation between the presence of content-personification and trust.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:05 communication studies
Programme:Communication Studies MSc (60713)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/61781
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