The Discussion on Influence of Website Usability ... - ResearchGate

<strong>The</strong> <strong>Discussion</strong> on Influence of Website Usability towards User Acceptability
Yu-Lung Wu 1 , Yu-Hui Tao 2 , Pei-Chi Yang 3
1 Department of Information Management, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung County, Taiwan
2 Department of Information Management, National University of Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
3 Department of Information Engineering, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung County, Taiwan
Abstract –From Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, the development of
Internet technology makes the existing value of websites has
revolutionary change. How to provide suitable service platform
for human-machine interaction through websites is the subject of
debate that many technology developers and users concern about
nowadays. This study uses Unified <strong>The</strong>ory of Acceptance and Use
of Technology (UTAUT) as the foundation, from the perspective
of tourism companies and Internet users to analyze the relevant
factors of website usability. And then, simple random sampling
method would be used for questionnaire investigation, so as to
discuss the difference of the application of website usability
towards tourism e-commerce website service content and the
influence towards users’ acceptability. <strong>The</strong> theoretical
framework of strategy and service that is applicable to the
development of tourism e-commerce websites are generalized
and analyzed, so as to derive out the key indicators of website
usability. <strong>The</strong> result of this study finds out the users of tourism ecommerce
websites think that “Navigation”, “Functionality and
User Control”, “Architectural and Visual Clarity”, “Language
and Content”, “Consistency”, “System and User Feedback”,
“Online Help and User Guides”, and “Website Obstacle” can
promote “Behavioral Intention”of tourism e-commerce websites;
it also thinks that “Error Prevention and Correction” wil
promote the “Use Behavior”of the tourism e-commerce websites.
<strong>The</strong> result of this study can help the tourism companies to view
the frameworks of current websites so as to provide more
appropriate services for the users.
Keywords - Unified <strong>The</strong>ory of Acceptance and Use of
Technology (UTAUT), website usability, user acceptability, tourism
I. INTRODUCTION
According to the investigation of the server quantity of
global websites announced on January 5th by Netcraft [1], it
shows that there are nearly 106,875,138 websites are
connected to Internet hosts globally at present, comparing to
January 2006, nearly 16,300,000 websites are increased in one
year. In view of this, it has shown that Internet has already
been incorporated in our life deeply. Internet not only changes
the human’s living habitual behavior but also changes
human’s consumption habitual behavior, and then every kind
of and different kinds of commercial operation attitudes have
been formed further. <strong>The</strong>refore, establishing a website that is
attractive, with perfect functions, and fits in with general or
particular users’needs is a global topic that has been
discussed and disputed constantly.
In view of this, this study starts with the usability
viewpoints of human-machine interface design, and then
Unified <strong>The</strong>ory of Acceptance and Use of Technology
(UTAUT) is used as the demonstration’s basis, hoping to
establish a set of website general usability’s measuring
standards for the design principles of tourism e-commerce
websites, so that the design quality of website and webpage
can be improved; thus, the interaction between users and
websites can be obstacle-free, happier, and faster, and also the
user’s demands can be reached correctly[2].
In order to reach the test and verification of this study’s
purpose and investigation result, discussion on two major
topics, website usability and e-commerce website, would be
carried out so as to understand the demographic structure and
characteristics of the users who use tourism e-commerce
websites at present, and then the current situation of tourism ecommerce
websites and the users’demands would also be
categorized and analyzed. <strong>The</strong> functions or services that are
provided by and the interface design of tourism e-commerce
websites would be discussed through the perspective of users.
And then, the steps such as user test, questionnaire collection,
and evaluation on website usability would be undertaken.
Next, the influence of website usability’s factors towards the
users of tourism e-commerce websites would be generalized
and analyzed, so as to understand the “behavioral intention”
that influences the users to use tourism e-commerce websites’
services. Finally, the assessment for the suitability of Unified
<strong>The</strong>ory of Acceptance and Use of Technology towards the
usability of e-commerce websites would be tested and verified.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
A. <strong>The</strong> present situation of e-commerce development
According to the investigation on “Taiwan Internet surfer
population in the end of September, 2007” that was
announced by Forseeing Innovative New Digiservices
(thereafter calls FIND for short) of Institute for Information
Industry, it points out that the cable users in our country are up
to 4,400,000 users, there are 1,380,000 dial-up connection
users and 9,000 ISDN users, Taiwan Academic Network
(TANet) has 3,960,000 users, and there are 9,000,000 mobile
Internet users[3]. After weighting and calculating the abovementioned
user numbers of every connection method, and
deducting the repeated values of low usage users, one person
with multiple accounts, and many people with one account,
this study estimates the Internet surfer population of our
country is 9,710,000 users until the end of September 2006,
the popularity of Internet application is 43%, compared with
the last season, over 30,000 users have been increased, the

growth rate is only 0.3%. Institute for Information Industry’s
FIND (2007) also explains that innovating continuously is still
one of the important methods for the enterprise to maintain the
competitive advantage when facing fast market change, and
“the customer’s suggestion”is the most important idea or
information resource when the service subscribers are in the
process of innovating products or services[4]. As a result, how
to offer consumers with more value-added and higher quality
services one of the important learning topics under the social
change that consumers’demands are increasing day by day.
B. Website Usability
<strong>The</strong> pioneer of website usability Jakob Nielsen and his
research partner Donald A. Norman have already proposed the
concept of website usability in 1998[5]. Nielsen [6]also
defines website usability as the application of human-machine
interface’s usability concept onto websites, so as to serve as
the quality standards and targets of measuring the website’s
human-machine interface. Krug [7]also defines website
usability as the degree of comfort of guests using the website.
Website usability not only established every on-site work
firmly, but also understands how to allow the guest to use the
website quickly and easily. Cowen [8] uses eye tracking to
assess the question of website usability. Brandon Cornett [9]
also points out that website usability and website marketing
are closely related and cannot be separated. Before someone
can respond something to your website, he/she should be able
to use your website first. Brinck et al. [10] also points out that
a website that allow the users to finish their desired target
quickly, efficiently and simply, then it is an usable website; he
also defines the design principles of a good website, which is
the website tally with simplicity, consistence and having focus.
After the above relevant literature review, one can know
that many scholars and experts have already used different
factors and dimensions to focus on website usability for
analysis and evaluation, among which a lot of studies use the
same or relevant website usability factors to undertake the test
and verification on relevant studies. This study also consults
their relevant factors and dimensions, in order to categorize
some website usability factors so as to undertake the
assumptions and analysis for the study.
C. <strong>The</strong> development of technology acceptance model
Venkatesh et al. [11] proposes Unified <strong>The</strong>ory of
Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). <strong>The</strong>
development of UTAUT is based on the studies in 20 years
and eight different acceptance models. Among them, these
eight different acceptance models are theory of rational
behavior, theory of planned behavior, technology acceptance
model, innovation diffusion theory (IDT), social cognitive
theory (SCT), motivational model (MM), combination of
technology acceptance model and theory of planned behavior
(C-TAM-TPB) and model of PC utilization (MPCU)
respectively. UTAUT mainly discusses the degree of
acceptance that individual user has towards information
technology. Its target lies in verifying and explaining the user
intends to use information system and his use behavior
afterwards, which includes four crucial factors, performance
expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating
conditions. Gender, age, experience and use intention are
assumed as the external variables that would strike against the
four crucial factors. Performance expectancy means the
individual believes that after using that system, it would be
helpful for him or her to obtain better performance at work.
Effort expectancy refers to the degree of accessibility of using
the system. Social influence refers to the degree that the
individual is influenced by other important people and then
uses the new system. Facilitating conditions refer to the
degree that the individual believes the existence of
infrastructure of the organization and technology can support
the use of system. Up to now, a lot of relevant studies have
already used UTAUT to undertake the analysis and
measurement of the use of information technology, and the
relevant evidence-based results generally obtain support
[11][12].
From the documents that are used in this study, one can
know that the use of UTAUT has become more extensive in
recent years, it is no longer confined to the discussion about
the use of information system, such as computer system, email,
online tax report, wireless Internet and online games, but
it has not been used in the study and verification about
usability or website usability yet at present. In view of this,
this study will utilize UTAUT to discuss the influence that
website usability has towards users.
III. STUDY MODEL AND METHOD
After the discussion of relevant literature review, this
study also consults UTAUT and generalizes the factors of
relevant website usability into four control variables
(Performance Expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE),
Social Influence (SI), and Facilitating Conditions (FC)) so as
to undertake the study analysis. In addition, besides the four
existing external variables (Gender, Age, Experience and
Voluntariness of Use), the fifth external variables (Position) is
added attempting to understand whether there is a difference
on Use Behavior in different Position classifications. This
study model is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 –Study model
IV. THE STUDY RESULT

In the pre-test, this study uses the one-to-one method to
carry out interview and investigation with 40 participants, 40
copies of questionnaires have been retrieved, the number of
effective questionnaires is 40 copies, and thus the
effectiveness is 100%. In addition, the purpose of
implementing pre-test is to understand and confirm the
usability and quality of the questionnaire, the control variables
that are related to the study model are not included in the test
scope.
<strong>The</strong>refore, for the official questionnaire of this study, it is
divided into two methods to undertake, which are Internet and
on-the-spot interviews. Because of the limitations of
manpower, funds and time, the study subject would only be
focused on the Taiwan users who have website use experience.
<strong>The</strong> adopted sampling method is simple random sampling.
Through distributing and retrieving questionnaires for one
month, 257 copies are retrieved from the Internet, the effective
number of questionnaire is 193 copies, thus the retrieval rate is
75.10%; for on-the-spot section, the one-to-one method is
used to carry out interview and investigation with 72
participants, and 72 copies have been retrieved, the effective
questionnaire number is 63 copies, and the effective rate is
87.5%. Overall speaking, 329 copies have been retrieved, the
effective questionnaire number is 256 copies, and the retrieval
rate is 77.81%.<strong>The</strong> KMO value of every factor dimension in
this study is greater than 0.8, so they are suitable for factor
analysis.
This study also uses Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)
and based on the study model, measuring variables and
weighing indicators to set performance expectancy, effort
expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and
behavioral intention as Latent Variables; the use behavior is
set to be Observed Variable; behavioral intention is also set to
be Intervening Variable. And then, AMOS 16 structural
equation model analytical software is used to focused on each
dimension so as to use Maximum Likelihood Estimation
(MLE) to carry out the path analysis and goodness-of-fit of
this study’s overal model. With modification indicators (MI),
this study focuses on each question and then adjustment and
deletion would be caried out. Also, Bolen’s viewpoints
(1989) are consulted, the paths, whose MI values are greater
than 5, and its questions would be added to the model for
analysis, so as to improve the explanatory ability of the
model’s relevant path towards use behavior. After analyzing
and modifying, the value of χ2 is 1266.267 and P-Value is
0.000, both of them have reached the level of
significance.Thus, the path analytical result is shown in Table
Ⅰ
TABLE I <strong>The</strong> path analytical result of the overall model
Potential relationships
between variables
P.C. a
C.R. b
PEBI .327 2.673 .007 **
P c
Test result
Significant
EEBI .307 3.524 .000 ***
Significant
SIBI .145 2.184 .033 *
Significant
FC BI .093 2.840 .006 **
Significant
PE UB .202 .894 .371 Insignificant
EE UB .208 2.326 .009 **
Significant
SI UB .028 .300 .764 Insignificant
FC UB .418 2.683 .007 **
Significant
BI UB 1.013 3.692 .000 ***
Significant
a
P.C.: Path Coefficient
b
C.R.: Critical Region
c
P: Probability
* P

expectancy”, “efort expectancy”, “social influence” and
“facilitating conditions”will improve “behavioral intention”
of tourism e-commerce websites, they also think that
“behavioral intention” can improve “use behavior”of tourism
e-commerce websites.
What deserves to pay attention to is shown in the potential
factors of website usability, the users of tourism e-commerce
websites think that “Navigation”, “Functionality and User
Control”, “Online Help and User Guides”, “Language and
Content”, “Consistency”, “System and User Feedback”,
“Online Help and User Guides”, and “Website Obstacle” can
promote “Behavioral Intention” of tourism e-commerce
websites; it also thinks that “Eror Prevention and Corection”
will promote the “Use Behavior”of the tourism e-commerce
websites. <strong>The</strong> result of this study also shows that the “Gender”,
“Age”, “Experience”, and “Voluntarines of Use”of the users
of tourism e-commerce websites will all have positivedifferent
influence towards the acceptance degree of tourism
e-commerce websites.
Today, tourism e-commerce market has already replaced
the tangible store market gradually, commercial studies and
complete service are the very inevitable trend; through this
study, one can understand where the trend of prospective
development and the direction of service are deeply. <strong>The</strong>
current users are regarded as the main shaft with the assistance
of foreign users’intention, then the latest trend of the market
can be shown. This study allows the relevant service providers
to understand better that what kind of service should be
provided. From the perspective of government, the industry’s
direction can then be guided, so as to promote the
competitiveness of the overall national technology industry.
From the perspective of product exploitation, the product can
be more humanized and closer to the user’s living
environment. Through the framework and point at issue of this
study, if they can be enhanced and glorified, not only the
current users can have much willingness to use tourism ecommerce
websites, but also the unknown potential groups
can also be exploited. In addition, more novel services can be
provided and the overall service scale can be expanded, so as
to reach the greatest social contribution and value.
REFERENCES
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costs to strengthen product sales and e-battle, Forseeing Innovative New
Digiservices (2007), Institute for Information Industry,
(Downloading time: 2008-01-14)
[4] <strong>The</strong> information application’s performance evaluation of our country’s
key field (<strong>The</strong> second part), Forseeing Innovative New Digiservices
(2007), Institute for Information Industry,
(Downloading time: 2008-01-21)
[5] Norman, Donald A. (1998), <strong>The</strong> Psychology of Everyday Things, Basic
Books Inc
[6] Nielsen, J. (1994), Heuristic evaluation. In Nielsen, J., and Mack, R.L.
(Eds.), Usability Inspection Methods, John Wiley & Sons, New York,
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University
[9] Brandon Cornet (2007), “Real Estate Internet Marketing - Increase
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