Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

ScienceDirect
Procedia Computer Science 121 (2017) 166–169

CENTERIS - International Conference on ENTERprise Information Systems / ProjMAN -

International Conference on Project MANagement / HCist - International Conference on Health
and Social Care Information Systems and Technologies, CENTERIS / ProjMAN / HCist 2017, 8-10
November 2017, Barcelona, Spain

The Effect of Representational UI Design Quality of Mobile

Shopping Applications on Users’ Intention to Shop
Wonjin Jung*
Dankook University, The School of Business and Economics, 132 Jook-Jun-Lo, Soo-Ji-Goo, YongIn 16890, Korea

Abstract

Since today’s mobile devices were launched back in the late 1990s, a wide variety of cutting-edge technologies has been used to
provide users with up-to-date content and functions by means of the user interfaces (UI) of mobile applications. Because of a
variety of content and functions, the UI of most mobile applications gradually has become more complicated and ambiguous to
use. Such user environments have degraded the representational UI design quality of most mobile applications. They have also
negatively affected not only the usability of mobile shopping applications, but also users’ intention to use the applications to
shop. A literature review reveals that prior research in information systems (IS) has not shown much interest in the relationships
between the representational UI design quality of mobile shopping applications, the usability of the applications, and users’
intention to use the applications to shop. The research goals of this study are: (1) to examine the direct effects of the conciseness
and consistency of the UI design of mobile shopping applications on the usability of the applications, as well as on users’
intention to use the applications to shop, and (2) to find the relationship between the usability of mobile shopping applications
and users’ intention to use the applications to shop. A survey was conducted to collect data, and structural equation modeling
(SEM) was then used to analyze the data. The results of this study show that the representational design quality of the UI of
mobile shopping applications has a significant, direct effect on the usability of the applications and on users’ intention to use the
applications to shop. In addition, the usability of the applications also has a significant effect on the users’ intention to use the
applications to shop.
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the CENTERIS - International Conference on ENTERprise
Information Systems / ProjMAN - International Conference on Project MANagement / HCist - International Conference on
Health and Social Care Information Systems and Technologies.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +82-10-8835-8205.

E-mail address: jungw@dankook.ac.kr

1877-0509 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the CENTERIS - International Conference on ENTERprise Information
Systems / ProjMAN - International Conference on Project MANagement / HCist - International Conference on Health and Social
Care Information Systems and Technologies.
10.1016/j.procs.2017.11.023
 Wonjin Jung / Procedia Computer Science 121 (2017) 166–169 167

Keywords: Representational; interface; shopping; application; intention; buy

1. Introduction

Since today’s mobile devices were launched in the late 1990s, a wide variety of cutting-edge technologies has
been used to provide users with up-to-date content and functions through the user interfaces (UI) of mobile
applications. Even though the display space of most mobile devices has increased a bit since then, it is still too small
to show various content and functions in one display screen. Accordingly, the UI of most mobile applications
gradually has become more crowded in a confined little display space and ambiguous to use. Because mobile device
users interact with mobile applications through the UI of the applications, the user interactivity with the applications
is significantly influenced by the UI design of the applications [1, 6]. When too much content and functions take up
the small display space of mobile devices, the UI design quality of the applications are bound to decrease.
Especially, the conciseness and consistency of UI design would be the UI design attributes that are most
significantly affected. One step further, such user environments would constrain the usability of the applications.
In order to maintain UI design concisely and consistently, most applications have used metaphors heavily in their
UI. Wastebaskets, floppy diskettes, binoculars, scissors, etc., are good examples of metaphors used in the UI of most
applications [5, 12]. They free UI space and design from excessive use of words. As a result, the UI of applications
can be concise and consistent in design, leading to better usability and user convenience [2, 3, 7]. Many studies on
UI design have emphasized the importance of such representational UI design quality. However, when the UI design
of applications is too simple because of excessive use of metaphors, symbols, and graphics, the UI can be
ambiguous either to understand or to use. The users of the applications can have difficulty grasping the exact
meaning represented in the UI design and graphics. They also have difficulty using and interacting with the
applications.
Some researchers have stated that conciseness and consistency are critical UI design attributes. They noted that
conciseness and consistency in the UI design of a system have a significant effect on the usability of the system [2,
7]. Several other researchers have also argued that these UI design attributes in educational applications affect
learning. They also have shown that the conciseness and consistency of UI design enable users to communicate
quickly and precisely with applications, leading to easy interaction with the applications [3, 12]. As a result, users
can formulate their knowledge and experiences in the use of the applications, thus affecting their learning [4, 6, 8].
To achieve high representational UI design quality of mobile applications, it is important to understand what
representational UI design quality means. According to Wang and Strong’s [11] data-quality framework,
representational data quality emphasizes the importance of the role of systems; that is, the system must present data
and information concisely and consistently. This study employed the two representational data-quality attributes
from Wang and Strong’s framework, conciseness and consistency, to explore the effects of the representational UI
design quality of mobile shopping applications.
According to the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), widely used in the IS field to explore information
technology (IT) users’ behavior, usefulness is a variable in the model that determines the users’ behavioral intention
to use technologies [9, 10]. Many studies have shown the effect of usefulness of information technologies on users’
intention to use the technologies. Based on the TAM and many prior studies verifying the TAM, it can be inferred
that the users of mobile shopping applications are expected to base their intention to use the applications to shop on
their experience with the usability of the applications. That is, when the users of mobile shopping applications
realize that the applications are very usable, the users will intend to use the applications in order to shop.
Meanwhile, when the users’ are not satisfied enough with the applications, the usability of the applications could
reduce the users’ intention to use the applications to shop.
In short, high representational UI design quality of mobile shopping applications could significantly affect not
only the usability of the applications, but also the intention of users to use the applications to shop. It also seems that
168 Wonjin Jung / Procedia Computer Science 121 (2017) 166–169

the usability of mobile shopping applications affects users’ intention to use the applications to shop. However, these
effects and relationships are uncertain, because mobile shipping applications and their UI designs are quite diverse.
A comprehensive literature review discovers little research on the direct effects of the representational UI design
quality of mobile shopping applications on the usability of the applications or on users’ behavioral intention to use
the applications to shop. Thus, the main goals of this study are as follows: (1) to examine the direct effects of the
conciseness and consistency of the UI design of mobile shopping applications on the usability of the applications
and on users’ intention to use the applications to shop, and (2) to find the relationship between the usability of
mobile shopping applications and users’ intention to use the applications to shop.

This study will verify the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1: The conciseness of the UI design of mobile shopping applications positively affects the usability of
the applications.
Hypothesis 2: The consistency of the UI design of mobile shopping applications positively affects the usability of
the applications.
Hypothesis 3: The conciseness of the UI design of mobile shopping applications positively affects users’
intention to use the applications to shop
Hypothesis 4: The consistency of the UI design of mobile shopping applications positively affects users’
intention to use the applications to shop
Hypothesis 5: The usability of mobile shopping applications positively affects users’ behavioral intention to use
the applications to shop.

2. Data Analysis and Results

This study empirically examined the effects that the representational design quality of the UI of mobile shopping
applications has on the usability of the applications as well as users’ intention to use the applications to shop. The
relationship between the usability of mobile shopping applications and users’ intention to use the applications to
shop was also examined. To examine the effects and relationship, this study collected data by a survey with a total
of 283 college students and practitioners. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the data.
As predicted in the hypotheses, the conciseness of the UI design of mobile shopping applications had a significant
effect on the usability of the applications (β = .278, p < .0001) as well as users’ intention to use the applications to
shop (β = .325, p < .0001). Thus, the hypotheses 1 and 3 were supported. The consistency of the UI design of mobile
shopping applications also had significant effects on both the usability of the applications (β = 308, p < .0001) and
users’ intention to use the applications to shop (β = 259, p < .0001). Hypotheses 2 and 4 were also supported. Lastly,
the usability of the applications also had a direct significant impact on users’ intention to use the applications to
shop (β = 305, p < .0001), supporting the hypothesis 5.

3. Discussion and Conclusion

This study is an empirical investigation about the effects that the attributes of the representational UI design
quality of mobile shopping applications have on the usability of the applications as well as on the intention of users
to use the applications to shop. This study also examined the effect of the usability of the applications on the users’
intention to use the applications to shop. The results of the analyses showed that the attributes of the representational
UI design quality, conciseness, and consistency, of mobile shopping applications had significant direct effects on the
usability of the applications as well as on the intention of users to use the applications to shop. This study also found
a significant effect of the usability of the applications on the intention of users to use the applications to shop.
These results emphasize the importance of the representational UI design quality, especially in the context of
mobile shopping applications, in understanding the factors that affect the usability of mobile shopping applications
and users’ intention to use the applications to shop. This study also found that the users of mobile shopping
 Wonjin Jung / Procedia Computer Science 121 (2017) 166–169 169

applications should be provided with both concisely and consistently designed UI of the applications. Such high
quality of representational UI design allows mobile shopping applications to deliver enough good shopping-related
essential information and functions to the users. When application developers and UI designers develop mobile
shopping applications, they might do well to consider the findings of this study in order to improve the
representational quality of the UI design of their mobile shopping applications, thus improving the users’ mobile
shopping experience supported by the usability of the applications, as well as making it more likely that users will
do their shopping by using the applications. Otherwise, the UI design of mobile shopping applications is confusing,
which lessens both the usability of the applications and users’ intention to use the applications to shop.

Acknowledgements

The present research was conducted by the research fund of Dankook University in 2017.

References

1. Bostrom RP, Olfman L, Sein MK. The importance of learning style in end-user training. MIS Quarterly 1990:3:1 p.101-119.
2. Black M. More about metaphor. In: Ortony A, editor. Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge: University Press; 1988.
3. Chu C, Chan BK. Evolution of web site design: implications for medical education on the Internet. Computer in Biology and Medicine 1998:
28: p.470-472.
4. Johnson-Laird PN. Mental models. In: Posner M1, Editor. Foundations of cognitive science. Cambridge: MIT Press; 1989.
5. McWilliam G, Dumas A. Using metaphor in new brand design. Journal of Marketing Management 1997:13: p. 265-284.
6. Moran T. An applied psychology of the use. ACM Computing Surveys 1981:13: p. 1-12.
7. Moshagen M, Thielsch MT. Facets of visual aesthetics. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction 2010:68: p. 689-709.
8. Rouse WB, Morris NM. On looking into the black box: prospects and limits in the search for mental models. Psychological Bulletin 1986:100:
p. 349-363.
9. Schmidt KE, Liu YL, Sridharan S. Webpage aesthetics, performance, and usability: design variables and their effects. Ergonomics 2009:52: p.
641-643.
10. Szajna B. Empirical evaluation of the revised technology acceptance model. Management Science 1996:42:1 p. 85-92.
11. Wang RY, Strong DM. Beyond accuracy: what data quality means to data consumers. Journal of Management Information Systems,
1996:12:4 p.5-34.
12. Wolfe CR. Plant a tree in cyberspace: metaphor and analogy as design elements in web-based learning environments. CyberPsychology and
Behavior 2001:4 p.67-76.