Dual Role of ICT Interventions for Semi-Literate Rural Communities: A Social Capital Perspective

Prior research has proposed ICT as an intervention for behavior change but it has primarily focused on literate communities. These techniques, however effective fail to prove their metal when it comes to semi-literate rural communities. Because ICT has played an important role in enabling positive change in developing regions we believe they can be contextualized for semi-literate communities as well. In this paper, we use a social capital perspective to focus on India’s farming communities that have comfortable access to mobile ICTs but have not been fully served. We explore some of the inherent challenges in adopting ICTs in a particular belt of villages in Maharashtra (India). Although our results are preliminary they highlight the importance of contextualizing ICTs specifically for semi-literate communities so that they can be better adopted

Effects of Persuasive Claims on Desirability and Impulse Purchase Behavior

Group buying websites are getting increasingly popular in the recent years. These websites typically work with merchants to offer group deals at attractive prices. They need a pre-determined minimum number of buyers for a deal before that deal is on. It is therefore important for marketers to understand how they can encourage consumers to buy these online group deals early. Using the right persuasive claims that reflect a deal’s scarcity or popularity can help in heuristics information processing and shape a consumer’s desirability in that deal. This desirability can in turn tempt him or her to purchase immediately. As consumers are usually not informed of the deals prior to visiting the group buying websites, such buys can be termed as “impulse purchases”, i.e. unplanned or unintended buys. In particular, we investigate how one’s need-for-uniqueness can influence the effectiveness of these persuasive claims. In view of the snob and bandwagon effects, marketers learn to appreciate which persuasive claims work better for what type of consumers

Effect of Icon Styles on Cognitive Absorption and Behavioral Intention of Low Literate Users

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are being considered as one of the most potential medium for bringing more efficient and sustainable solution for many problems faced by different communities belong to the middle of economic pyramid of developing countries. Mobile phone based applications can offer many potential solutions for such problems. Existing solutions which are quite successful at the top of the pyramid user population often prove itself ineffective at the middle of the pyramid naïve low-literate users. In this context interface designers also face considerable challenges due to lack of consolidate icon design methodology which can be adapted for the target user sections. Therefore we propose an empirical study to address the requirement of concrete icon design methodology. Grounded in ‘Cognitive Absorption’ and ‘Theory of Metaphor’ we propose a concrete design guidelines specifically for designing icons to ensure instant learning, usage and adaptation of the system for daily usage. A mobile pest management system is developed to bring the real context on which design methodologies and the role of cognitive absorption and metaphor can be examined to identify the most appropriate one. Our preliminary study suggests a comprehensive icon design methodology and its effect on cognitive absorption as well as behavioral intention for low literate novice users

The Dissimilar Effects of Fairness on Knowledge Sharing in Distributed Workgroups: A Social Network Perspective

Distributed workgroups are increasingly adopted by global organizations, enabled by technology advances. While social ties and performance of such workgroups have been examined in existing literature, the distinctions in knowledge sharing practices remain blurred. We developed a research model to examine the effects of social ties on knowledge sharing practices through the lens of justice perceptions (i.e., fairness) from a dyadic level. The model was tested in a field study of distributed workgroups at a large multinational organization. Our results suggested that Simmelian-tied dyads (dyads embedded in three-person cliques) had significant influence on justice perceptions and knowledge sharing. Expertise knowledge sharing was influenced by procedural and informational justice perceptions. Contrary to previous studies, our study suggested that product knowledge sharing occurred regardless of distributive justice perception. The findings provided insights to the mechanisms underlying social ties, justice perceptions, and knowledge sharing

Understanding User Adaptation toward a New IT System in Organizations: A Social Network Perspective

Social networks can be a vital mechanism for users to adapt to changes induced by new IT systems in organizations. However, we do not adequately understand the effect of social networks on post-adoption IT use. Drawing on coping theory and the social network literature, we develop a cognitive-affective-behavioral classification of user adaptation and identify seeking-network closure and giving-network closure as key network characteristics pertinent to post-adoption IT use. Thereafter, we establish a theoretical link from seeking-network closure and giving-network closure to post-adoption IT use through the underlying mechanisms of user adaptation. We operationalize the research model using a field survey of a newly implemented electronic medical record system in a hospital in Northeast China, where we collected network data and objective system logs of 104 doctors. We found that seeking-network closure was positively associated with cognitive adaptation but negatively associated with affective adaptation and behavioral adaptation, whereas giving-network closure was negatively associated with cognitive adaptation but positively associated with affective adaptation and behavioral adaptation. Moreover, cognitive adaptation and affective adaptation were determinants of post-adoption IT use, but behavioral adaptation was not. We discuss our study’s theoretical and practical contributions

Population Stereotyped Icons: A Study of Agrarian Communities in India

Knowledge transfer is a key factor for increasing agriculture yield especially in developing countries like India. Information Communication Technologies (ICT) is the best platform for knowledge transfer. However, the expertise level of novice users living in India has compromised usage of ICT services. To fill the gap, we suggest for icons to be developed using population stereotype production method. In this study, we first generated population stereotype representations for sixteen different function labels. We then compared the performance and representativeness of these populationstereotyped icons with other ideas. Two separate experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, ninety-two participants from the farming communities were asked to draw images to represent sixteen function labels. In the second experiment, eighty-eight participants were equally distributed into four groups to evaluate the performance and representativeness of all the population-stereotyped representations. This study answered one of the most significant questions regarding the utility of using population-stereotyped ideas for the development of icons in the context of agrarian societies of rural India. The study also offered important practical implications for designing representative icons by using representations developed by different participants during population stereotype production

Icon Types, Classical and Expressive Aesthetics, Pleasurable Interaction and Satisfaction with the Process of Semi-literate Users

The hedonic role of icons has been undermined in contemporary human computer interaction research, though users have specifically mentioned the importance of icons while performing aesthetic evaluation of user interfaces. Previous research has also neglected factors like aesthetics and pleasurable interaction while comparing efficiency of same interface elements. In this regard, current study investigates how different types of icons in mobile applications affect the aesthetics and pleasurable interactions of semi-literate users. This study also investigates the extent to which aesthetics and pleasurable interactions affect satisfaction with the process. The study addresses these issues from the theoretical perspectives of metaphor and aesthetics. Significant differences were observed for aesthetics and pleasurable interactions between two different types of icon sets, namely metaphoric and idiomatic. This study suggests that for higher evaluation of aesthetics and pleasurable interaction for semi-literate users, specific icon types are preferred

EXTROVERT OR INTROVERT: HOW PERSONALITY MODERATES THE EFFECT OF VISUAL AESTHETICS ON APP ATTRACTIVENESS IN MOBILE APPLICATIONS

We propose a conceptual model for the context of mobile applications (apps) that explains the relationship between perceived visual aesthetics, perceived visual attractiveness, and intention to download. The model predicts that the aesthetics characteristics influence users’ perceived app attractiveness and users’ intention to download the app. It further predicts an interaction effect, where users’ personality types moderate the effect of aesthetics characteristics on perceived app attractiveness. In other words: differences in aesthetics characteristics explain differences in perceived app attractiveness. However, this effect varies for different types of user personality. We explain the model’s grounding in theory, describe the design of a laboratory experiment for empirically testing the model, and explain our manipulations of the aesthetics characteristics along its classic and expressive dimensions. Besides presenting our conceptual model and describing out planned experimental design, this study encourages researchers to further investigate how aesthetics characteristics affect intention formation depending on user personality types

User-Accustomed Interaction: An Usability Approach for Designing Mobile Application for Novice and Expert Users

The development of smartphone applications is prevailing globally, including the underserved communities consisting of a huge group of novice users. In spite of the growing number of novice users, we hardly consider usability for users with varying expertise level when we evaluate performance and satisfaction with usage of mobile applications. In this study, we argue that it is not suitable to design one interface for all users of progressively varying communities. Based on theories in design science research, we propose a user-accustomed approach to adapt mobile applications that integrate three types of interaction elements, namely localization, structural navigation and illustration. In an investigation of the proposed approach on mobile application, we empirically proved the effects of user-accustomed interaction techniques on performance and satisfaction between novice and expert users. The findings provide significant theoretical and practical implications for design and implementation of user interfaces on mobile application