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Perceived Interactivity and Cognitive Involvement
Perceived Interactivity and Cognitive Involvement:
A Protocol Analysis of User Experience on A Web Portal with Multimedia Features
Yan Jin
Doctoral Student of School of Journalism
University of Missouri-Columbia
211 South College Avenue, #3
Columbia, MO 65201
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(573) 817-3293
Glen T. Cameron, Ph.D.
Gregory Chair in Journalism Research
Missouri School of Journalism
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(573) 884-2607
Submitted for consideration to the Communication Theory and Methodology
Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass
Communication Annual Conference, Kansas City, 2003.
Note: All correspondence to: Yan Jin, 211 South College Ave., Apt. #3,
Columbia, MO 65201, (573) 817-3293.
Abstract
This protocol analysis investigates how the most recent developed
conceptualization and dimensional definition of perceived interactivity may
move beyond advertising effectiveness and fit into Web portal with
multimedia features. Portal users' thoughts on active control, two-way
communication, synchronicity as well as vividness were observed and
categorized into different cognitive involvement levels. As a result,
synchronicity turned out to be the most weighted dimensions, followed by
vividness and active control. Two-way communication seemed not a strong
indicator of portal interactivity.
Introduction
The World Wide Web is characterized by its ubiquity, global reach,
interactivity, decentralized, hyperlinked structure, and multimedia format
(Weare & Lin, 2000). Based on the technology of hypertext, key features of
the World Wide Web include a common "look and feel," consistent interface,
and a complete shielding of the user from the complexity underlying the
storage and retrieval of information on the Internet, which means the
choice of the Web as the innovation to be studied is appropriate precisely
because of the nature of the technology (Agarwal & Prasad, 1998).
As a prominent characteristic of Internet, interactivity has been a
blooming research topic but a seldom operationalized concept, and has been
positioned conceptually as a process, a function, and a perception
(McMillan & Hwang, 2002). Cho and Leckenby (1997) propose that there are
three different kinds of interactions: user-machine interaction (focusing
on human-computer interaction), user-user interaction (focusing on the
interpersonal communication in a computer-mediated environment), and
user-message interaction. From a user-interaction perspective,
interactivity is defined as the ability of the user to control and modify
messages (Steuer, 1992; cited by Liu & Shrum, 2002). So far, most of the
interactivity studies have been focused on advertising effectiveness or
e-business site effectiveness (Liu & Shrum, 2002; McMillan & Hwang, 2002;
Coyle & Thorson, 2001; Rodgers & Thorson, 2000), which has triggered us to
study the appropriateness and feasibility of interactivity
conceptualization on web portals, E-newspapers and other media-affiliated
sites. Also, none of the previous interactivity research touched upon the
role of multimedia technology in the maintenance of interactivity. In this
paper, we try to integrate the theoretical framework of interactivity with
multimedia effectiveness on a Web portal.
As a technological innovation and promising feature in all of the above
interactions, multimedia technology has moved Web content display beyond
text and merges text and image, audio and video, in a single,
high-definition display. Delivery of multimedia by computer is non-linear
and interactive (Perse & Dunn, 1998). According to Storslee's study
(2001), exposure to content in multimedia formats enhances the cognitive
processing of content resulting in improved retention, and there has to be
a point at which adding media to Web pages would become counter productive
to the transfer of the content.
Multimedia technology has started to be used in Web portals, which may set
up new standards of portal design and production in the future in order to
evoke more user-portal interaction. A portal is generally defined as an
entry point or starting site for the World Wide Web, combining a mixture of
content and services and attempting to provide a personalized "home base"
for its audience with features like customizable start pages to guide users
easily through the Web, filterable e-mail, a wide variety of chat rooms and
message boards, personalized news and sports headlines options, gaming
channels, shopping capabilities, advanced search engines and personal
homepage construction kits (OIT Help Desk Glossary, 2001). As multimedia
technology merges into more and more channels, more and more new-breed
portals are likely to come out, and the definition of the Web portal might
be improved adding more advanced features. On the other hand, many
traditional portals are hesitating to embrace the multimedia technology
because of the uncertainty of Web users' adoption of this technology and
the unclear stream of revenue. Thus, it is important to get insight about
Web users' perception on portals with multimedia features, especially in
their thoughts and feelings about the interactivity provided by the
multi-mediated online environment.
The purpose of this study is to investigate how the most recent developed
conceptualization and dimensional definition of perceived interactivity may
move beyond advertising effectiveness and fit into Web portal
effectiveness, especially those advanced portals with multimedia
features. Use of the think-aloud protocol analysis allows better
understanding of the perception and feelings toward interactivity evoked
when users are actually browsing a portal in a natural setting.
Conceptualization of Interactivity
Definition and Dimensions of Interactivity
Most of the definitions of interactivity are focused on the process or
function. Liu and Shrum (2002) argue that a thorough understanding of the
complexities of interactivity and a precise, concrete conceptualization and
definition of the construct is crucial to advancing research in the
field. According to Liu and Shrum's summery of prior studies, some
researcher defined interactivity as the facility for persons and
organizations to communicate directly with one another regardless of
distance or time; some defined interactivity to have two primary features:
the ability to address a person and to gather and remember the response of
that person; Some suggest that interactivity is the extent to which users
can modify the format and content of a mediated environment.
Considering the interactivity perceived by users, the effects of
interactivity has been rarely studied (Liu & Shrum, 2002): Some found
interactivity has a positive impact on user attitude; some found no
significant effect on consumer satisfaction; and some even concluded
interactivity might be detrimental to advertising effectiveness. Liu and
Shrum (2002) argue that those conflicting results might be due to the lack
of a clear definition of interactivity and come up with a definition of
interactivity as "the degree to which two or more communication parties can
act on each other, on the communication medium, and on the messages and the
degree to which such influences are synchronized" (p.54). They further
specify three dimensions of interactivity: active control, two-way
communication, and synchronicity. McMillan and Hwang (2002) developed
scales for measures of perceived interactivity to operationalize the
perception-based approach to interactivity. Three overlapping constructs
are explored: direction of communication, user control, and time, which
seem to correspond to Liu and Shrum's three dimensions of interactivity.
According to Liu and Shrum (2002), active control is characterized by
voluntary and instrumental action that directly influences the controller's
experience; in controlling a nonlinear structure as Internet, users are
able to customize the information flow and jump from one location in the
network to another. Two-way communication refers to the ability for
reciprocal communication between companies and users and users and users;
on the Internet, users can give instant feedback to companies implicitly
(facilitated by techniques tracking users' online behavior) or explicitly
(sending emails or filing out a form on the Web site). Lastly,
synchronicity refers to "the degree to which users' input into a
communication and the response they receive from the communication are
simultaneous" (p.55). As the researchers emphasize, system responsiveness
is essential to this dimension, because technology limitations and the
pitfalls of human fulfillment of technology can be detrimental to the
achievement of synchronicity, which might evoke user depression and
dissatisfaction.
Vividness: A New Dimension?
Beyond the three dimensions proposed by researchers, Coyle and Thorson
(2001) argue that vividness is a contributor to the perception of
interactivity and telepresence. Steuer (1992) defines vividness as the
representational richness of a mediated environment as defined by its
formal features, which refers to the way in which an environment presents
information to the senses. The concept of vividness consists of two
subdimensions: breadth (the number of different senses that a medium can
engage) and depth (how closely a medium can replicate parts of human
sensory system). Coyle and Thorson (2001) further propose that within a
company's home page, rich media tools such as video, audio, and animation
may be considered tools that increase vividness by enhancing the richness
of the experience.
Compared with other media, the breadth and depth of a multimedia portal
are much more wider and deeper. By use video, audio and animations in an
integrated way, it may provide uses with more senses to engage and hold
more potential to replicate human sensory system. Thus, we propose that
vividness may be added as the fourth dimensions when we examine a
multimedia-featured portal.
Structural and Experiential Aspects of Interactivity
Rodgers and Thorson (2000), in proposing a model for Internet advertising,
hold that information processing in an interactive environment depends on
both function and structure. The authors believe a general functionalist
paradigm that emphasizes not only why people use the Internet but also how
well they do it, provides a more precise conceptualization.
Liu and Shrum (2002) propose that the structural aspect of interactivity is
the hardwired opportunity of interactivity provided during an interaction,
while the experiential aspect refers to the interactivity of the
communication process as perceived by the communication parties. They
further argue that the distinction of these two aspects may make difference
in the three dimensions of interactivity. For example, from a structural
perspective, synchronicity may involve maintaining appropriate server
structure, providing adequate bandwidth, and ensuring correct linkage
between files; conversely, felt synchronicity is how synchronized users
feel the communication is, which might be influenced by the Internet
connection speed or the user's expectations, which cannot be controlled by
the company; For active control dimension, companies can offer users more
control opportunities by making the Web structure more flexible; however,
users may not always be motivated to exert control efforts and thus do not
feel a higher level of control; For two-way communication dimension, not
all users will take advantage of online feedback mechanisms available,
which may be because that they do not feel the need.
Effects of Interactivity
Web sites differ in their degree of interactivity, the level of
interactivity they offer and the nature of the interactivity. Some
features of a Web site may be more interactive than others or may at least
be perceived as such by the user. Even among features perceived to be
equal in interactivity, some features may be valued more highly than
others. As Liu and Shrum (2002) point out, certain dimensions of
interactivity may be weighted more heavily than others, and thus the
features associated with these dimensions may be perceived as not only more
interactive, but also more useful. One aim of this study is to investigate
which dimensions are weighted more by portal users, and if multimedia
features played a positive or negative role in user-portal interaction.
User Cognitive Involvement
As an important personal and situational factors in Liu and Shrum's (2002)
interactivity model, a user's cognitive involvement in the present context
refers to "the extent of cognitive elaboration that occurs in a
communication process" (p.60), which is different from the enduring product
involvement. It is a situational construct that starts and ends with the
communication process. Based on Eveland and Dunwoody's (2000) study,
online cognitive processes (maintenance, orientation, evaluation and
elaboration) are hierarchical: Elaboration may be the most complicated
cognitive processing when browsing a Web site, with most cognitive
involvement by using more cognitive capacity and vice versa. In our study,
cognitive processes of these thought categories will be examined and
integrated with the analysis of dimensions of interactivity by comparing
different user cognitive involvement.
Multimedia Features on Portals
Structure, Content and Multimedia Features
Attention to the structure and content of Web sites in the mass
communication literature typically entails the study of online newspapers
and information portals. Much of the same type of content (news,
advertising, searching, customization, etc.) is available on both types of
Web sites, although portals provide a larger gateway to other Web content
through offering Web-wide searching capabilities and a wider range of
content (Len-Rios, et al., 2002).
Studies have examined the design of the Web on memory, learning and
judgments. Berry (1999) found no difference in understanding or recall of
information from a Web site with multimedia and one without. On the other
hand, Sundar (2000) found that multimedia (pictures and audio) inhibited
learning but increased recall of advertising. Chamberlin (1998) found that
Web sites with high-end graphics were deemed more attractive. Vargo et al.
(2000) found that the more specific the information contained in a link,
the more sure users were about the page behind the link.
The term multimedia describes a number of diverse technologies that allow
visual and audio media to be taken and combined in new ways for the purpose
of communicating. The meaning of multimedia will continue to expand as
technology evolves and new applications are invented, including video
teleconferencing, instant messaging, Internet web browsing, and desktop
video production (Scala Multimedia Definition, 2002).
According to the multimedia definition of Search WebServices.com (2002),
multimedia is more than one concurrent presentation medium (for example, on
CD-ROM or a Web site). Although still images are a different medium than
text, multimedia is typically used to mean one of the following: text and
sound; text, sound, and still or animated graphic images; text, sound, and
video images; video and sound; multiple display areas, images, or
presentations presented concurrently. Multimedia tends to imply
sophistication (and relatively more expense) in both production and
presentation than simple text-and-images.
Effectiveness of Multimedia Features
There are several studies regarding the role multimedia technology plays in
the computer and Internet adoption. For example, according to Perse and
Dunn (1998), multimedia moves computer display beyond text and merges text
and image, audio and video, in a single, high-definition display. Images
are clearer and have higher resolution than television, and sound quality
is identical to that of compact discs. Further, delivery of multimedia by
computer is non-linear and interactive. Williams et al (1988) pointed out
that Interactive audio and visual presentations have greater potential for
greater audience involvement. Perse and Dunn (1998) indicated further that
the wide-spread availability of multimedia via the World Wide Web has made
multimedia more accessible and convenient, and future research should
explore displacement effects on television use as entertainment-oriented
Web sites increase and offer multimedia presentations.
According to Storslee (2001)'s study, Web pages with text, graphics,
animation and sound performed statistically better than Web pages with text
and graphics or Web pages with text-only. Storslee's Webpage media model
(2001) predicts that Web pages with text, graphics, animation and sound
provides the best content retention and Web pages with text, graphics, and
animation are an alternative to Web pages with sound. His findings also
imply that Web developers need to be aware of the speed of the network
users will be using to access the content and how long the media they are
using takes to download.
Jin and Cameron's (2002) study investigated how multimedia features affect
Web users' portal preference as a function of innovativeness, by analyzing
Web users' cognitive processes during the use of a portal dominated with
text and graphic features and a portal dominated with integrated multimedia
features. Findings show that Web users across personal innovativeness
levels have more higher-level cognitive processing and more favorable
thoughts at a portal dominated with text and graphic features, whereas they
have more lower-level cognitive processing and less favorable thoughts at a
portal dominated with integrated multimedia features. Web users have more
favorable experience in evaluation and elaboration at a portal dominated
with text and graphic features, and they have less favorable experience in
each type of cognitive processes at a portal dominated with integrated
multimedia features.
The portal studied in this research is vod.cnmaya.com. In this study,
multiple media dominated portals and multimedia-dominated portals are
distinguished by their different traits. Multimedia-dominated portals
employ combination of text, sound, and/or motion video. It implies
sophistication in both production and presentation than simple
text-and-images. Conversely, even though some portals have some
interactive and animated element, they cannot be seen as multimedia ones
since they are dominated by text and graphics and their multiple media
functions (if there are any) are not streaming and
integrated. Vod.cnmaya.com is selected as representative of new-breed
streaming and fully integrated multimedia dominated portals, aiming at
providing diversified broadband services. Most of the contents are
integrated and displayed in video and audio format via Internet media
players. Lots of 3D and Flash animations as well as ads are
contained. Unlike those traditional portals, vod.cnmaya.com integrates its
channels and items display on the platform of multimedia.
Research Questions
As a multidimensional concept, interactivity is treated as a sum of its
three dimensions. Important relations between a variable and a particular
dimension may be obscured simply because the other two dimensions showed no
relation with that variable. Further, when effects are noted, they may be
attributed to a global concept of interactivity when only one or two
dimensions of interactivity are driving the relations. Thus, it is
important to isolate and investigate the effects of individual dimensions
of interactivity as the literature suggested. More specifically, we are
interested in investigating these dimensions by seeking empirical answers
to the following research questions:
RQ1: How do users perceive and feel about active control when browsing a
Web portal with multimedia features?
RQ2: How do users perceive and feel about two-way communication when
browsing a Web portal with multimedia features?
RQ3: How do users perceive and feel about synchronicity when browsing a Web
portal with multimedia features?
RQ4: How do user perceive and feel about vividness when browsing a Web
portal with multimedia features?
Method
Although research has shown encouraging signs of the usefulness of
perceived interactivity, researchers consented that the results should be
treated with caution, because the studies all used different measures of
interactivity and the measures tended to be confounded with affect or
behavioral intentions. Liu and Shrum (2002) point out that "without an
understanding of how participants perceive the actual interactive features,
researchers run the risk of creating an invalid operationalization of
interactivity" (p. 58) and argue that "a better understanding of the nature
o perceived interactivity, and thus what interactivity means to users,
might be accomplished through qualitative research methods that investigate
the user's point of view" (p.59). Embracing these critical points, we
employed think aloud protocol analysis to examine the users' actual
perception and feelings about the different dimensions of interactivity
evoked by a Web portal with multimedia features.
Protocol Analysis
The think-aloud protocol analysis technique has been used in the areas of
education (Smagorinsky, 1989), speech communication (Hample, 2000),
cognitive psychology, media studies (Eveland and Dunwoody, 2000; Light,
1999; Tremayne & Dunwoody, 2001; Hu, et al., 2001; Len-Rios, M. et al.,
2002), and consumer research in marketing (Li et al., 2001). It is one of
two verbal report techniques proposed and studied by Ericcson and Simon
(1984). The purpose for using a think-aloud protocol analysis is to
examine cognitive processing while an individual is engaged in a task or
exposed to a stimulus. Li et al. (2001) mention that protocol analysis has
been a technique central to qualitative research in exploring consumer
experiences. Proponents of the technique argue that data generated from
verbal reports are no different than those generated from other methods,
such as surveys, reactions times, etc. (Ericsson & Simon, 1984).
Participants
Because think aloud procedure produces a large volume of verbal data and
coding per respondent and the analysis of transcripts is lengthy, a
relatively small number of participants –sixteen (Eveland & Dunwoody,
2000), twenty (Tremayne & Dunwoody, 2001), twelve (Hu et al., 2002;
Len-Rios et al., 2002) – are normally selected. For this study, twenty
native Mandarin (Chinese) speakers were randomly recruited from a local
contact directory (with telephone numbers and/or e-mail addresses) of
Chinese Students and Scholars in a medium-sized midwestern
community. Equal numbers of male and female participants were selected.
The sample is not meant to be representative of the Chinese population, but
to meet quota requirements. Instead of being more representative of the
general population, the participants in this study are more representative
of target users of the Web sites. The mean age of participants was 26.35
years old, with ages ranging from 20 to 39. All twenty participants were
graduate students. All of them have been using the Internet for at least
one to two years, and most of them have been using it for more than four
years. On average, all the participants spend at least 30 minutes to 1
hour visiting Web sites each day, and most of them spend one to three hours
doing that. There are 13 participants have their own computer at home,
with 12 of them using phone line and one of them using DSL/cable to get
Internet connection at home. The sample then was composed of young, highly
educated, Internet-literate Chinese, perhaps reflective of the select few
in China with Internet access, as well as representative of the local
Chinese in the community.
Stimulus
Vod.cnmaya.com was chosen as representative of integrated
multimedia-dominated portals. By the end of the our data collection, most
of the contents on the portal are integrated and displayed only in video
and audio via Internet media players. There are 9 main sections: main
page, news, finance, military, police, travel, entertainment, Chinese
culture, and English channel. 3D and Flash animations as well as ads are
contained.
The reason that this study didn't select the most popular portals is to
exclude the variable of users' familiarity with the Web site. Though two
male participants have heard of vod.cnmaya.com before, none of them have
ever used it, which provides the analysis an equal platform without the
confounding variable of Web site familiarity. The study will focus on the
cognitive processing difference that might be engendered by innovativeness
and gender difference. The site uses Mandarin Chinese (simplified)
characters and targets at Mainland Chinese users.
Because the site contained a huge number of pages, it was discovered that
it was impossible to download the entire sites for testing. Also, to
present more naturalistic conditions, and prevent providing outdated news
information, the Web site was used as loaded on that day of
test. Participants were run within a twelve-day period.
Equipment
An audiocassette recorder was used to record the thoughts. A Pentium III
Gateway computer with 128 MB of RAM was used for this study. It was
equipped with a 17" monitor, a mouse, a keyboard, and used a high-speed
Ethernet line for Internet connection. Speakers for sound were
enabled. Internet Explorer5 was used because IE does not require a special
Chinese platform for viewing Chinese characters.
Pretest for Formal Study
A volunteer participated in pretest to ensure the procedures ran smoothly
and instructions were easy to understand and follow. Pretesting revealed
that the time allocated to browse vod.cnmaya.com should be reduced from 20
to 15 minutes. Pretest participant noted that it was unnatural to stay on
vod.cnmaya.com for such an extended period and there was little left that
participant wanted to see or look at.
Procedure
Participants were greeted and it was explained that the study was about
expressing thoughts while using Web sites, and that they would be
verbalizing their thoughts while browsing vod.cnmaya.com. They were told
that if they grew silent, they would be prompted to remember to verbalize
their thoughts. Individuals were run separately in a university research
center in sessions that lasted about one hour.
As practice tasks for the think-aloud protocol were conducted, participants
engaged in verbalizing thought processes as they solved simple to difficult
mathematical equations, verbalizing their thoughts about the visual aspects
of five pictures, and verbalizing their thoughts when browsed
http://www.sogua.com, a Chinese Web site for music and movie searching.
After the three practice sessions, participants engaged in the task of
browsing vod.cnmaya.com for 15 minutes. The participants were required to
verbalize their thoughts in Mandarin, their native language. They were
allowed to follow any links, including those that took them to outside Web
sites. However, they were required to return to vod.cnmaya.com after they
finished browsing any outside Web sites.
Data Analysis
A two-step analysis was employed. The main unit of analysis was a
thought. Thoughts were operationalized as sentences, phrases or single
words that could be distinguished by pauses in speech. The audiotapes were
transcribed from the protocol analysis sessions, and separated them into
thought units. Coding categories were originally based on the work of
Eveland and Dunwoody (2000), maintenance, orientation, evaluation, and
elaboration.
The variable maintenance was operationalized as reading Web site content
aloud, word-for-word, such as simply reading the text, headlines, links or
advertising. Orientation was defined as statements related to
understanding the content or structure of a Web site. Evaluation thoughts
were coded as stated judgments related to the credibility and quality of
the Web site. Elaboration was coded as demonstrating that the participant
was incorporating information into previously held knowledge or
beliefs. Holsti's formula (Wimmer & Dominick, 1997) was used to calculate
intercoder reliability. Two 2-hour training session is conducted. Two
coders independently coded 10% of the data. The final intercoder
reliability was then resulted as .97.
The second step of data analysis included coding each unit of thought into
one of the three interactivity dimensions (active control, two-way
communication, and synchronicity) and the possible fourth dimension as
vividness, with an aim to investigate the appropriateness and feasibility
of employing a priori interactivity dimensions on a multi-mediated Web
portal. In this step, only thoughts on orientation, evaluation and
elaboration were used for qualitative analysis, because maintenance
thoughts are just about reading Web site content aloud word-for-word with
nothing to do with the concept of interactivity.
Results
Participants were asked to continuously verbalize what they were thinking
or feeling while browsing vod.cnmaya.com. Overall, there were 2,544
thoughts coded for the 20 participants. The results provide distinctly
identifiable responses corresponding to the dimensions of interactivity
plus vividness. Exerts (translated from Chinese to English) from
verbalizations are presented verbatim in this section, with gender and
participants number (e.g. M1 refers to male participant #1; F1 refers to
female participant #2) and type of thoughts (orientation, evaluation, or
elaboration) in parentheses. The percentage of participants who indicated a
given category or dimension of interactivity is reported as descriptive
information. Because a small nonprobability sample was employed, the
findings are not intended to generalize to a larger population but to
examine dimensions of Web portal interactivity.
Active Control
For any users to perceive the interactivity of a Web portal, the site
must enable users to customize the information flow and navigate
conveniently. A interactive site should also offer users more control
opportunities by making the Web structure more flexible; otherwise, users
might feel dissatisfied and feel out of control. 95% of the participants
indicated this dimension:
"It looks like a sign to click – does that mean if I click through it I can
see something out there? Let me pick something interesting to look
at." (F1, orientation)
"Nothing has been downloaded? How should I know which one is video and
which is not?" (F2, orientation)
"If I open two windows at the same time, will the two videos played at the
same time?" (F3, orientation) "To make multimedia site, it might be a good
idea to put some small picture on the site, which will let the user know
what might be there in the TV or movie. If he or she doesn't feel
interested, he/she can just ignore it. It will be more directional and
easy to navigate." (F3, elaboration).
"So strange, why it cannot get connected? What did I do? What's
happened?" (F6, orientation)
"Interactive TV? Does that mean I can pick whatever program I
like? Should I choose broadband, narrowband, or high quality to watch it?"
(F8, orientation)
"I See… This is an interactive TV site. There are small symbols by each
headline; if I click I can see the news. Oh, I can see it in full
screen. Good." (F10, orientation)
"Are all the pieces of news in video format? If so, I might be in
trouble. There is no text news at all?" (M1, orientation)
"This site looks attractive to me because I like to read news. I care
about international news, not tabloid news. The news on this site looks
professional. I might come here often in the future. I like the
organization of this site. I can easily navigate and find whatever I
want." (M3, evaluation, elaboration)
"It seems not easy to navigate. I want to go back to the previous video,
what should I do?" (M4, orientation)
"Um, the sound has the priority to image, which is very good. When I am
waiting for images to be downloaded, the sounds could make me feel
relaxed." (M5, evaluation)
"Great, just one click and I can watch the TV news." (M6, evaluation)
"This site has a very pretty main page, but it is not very easy to
navigate. What's going on there? There are media player on every page but
I cannot see things there." (M7, orientation)
"I like the organization and categorization of the content on the site,
very easy to navigate. I like the way the site provide us "try and listen"
function by each music piece. And I like those big pictures, easy for me
to locate my favorite singers." (M10, evaluation)
We found that most of the thoughts under the dimension of active control
fell into the thought category of orientation, with some of them
categorized as evaluation and elaboration. It seems that user's
understanding of the content or structure of a Web portal may be closely
related to the status or self-detection of control of the browsing
behavior. The valence of active control thoughts is largely
positive-negative balanced.
Two-way communication
Specifically for Web portal, two-way communication refers to the ability
for reciprocal communication between users and the portal and users to
users. On a portal, users can search information by inputting key word in
the portal search engine; users can give instant feedback to the portal by
registering as members and consuming other information by entering their
personal information. However, our study reveals that two-way
communication might not contribute a lot in portal interactivity. Only 30%
of the participants indicated this dimension during their browsing:
"What's this? Do I need to register myself to access to the chatroom?"
(F3, orientation)
"Let me input something in 'Search.' I have to type Chinese character?
Interactive games… Seems there is only those big games and I have to set up
an account and register as member." (F7, orientation)
"Oh, there is 'feedback from the audience'. Take a look… Better not to
register myself there. I like online games. Seems I need to apply for an
account number. Do I need to use my credit card? Let me try to apply here
and get an account here." (F10, orientation)
"Let me see this…Need my user name? So weird. I do not want to enter my
user name for each piece. Do I need to register myself? How to
register? Why I cannot find a place to register? Any free registration
available? Ok, I am done with registration. Let me enter my user name and
password." (M1, orientation)
We found that among the small number of thoughts under the dimension of
two-way communication, the largest proportion of it fell into orientation
category, with most them affectively neutral. It shows that two-way
communication, though an important dimension to online ads or e-commerce
sites, may not be a key indicator for an Web portal, which may be partially
due to the main function of a portal is provide information without
imperative trigger for user's instant feedback.
Synchronicity
Web-based interactivity involves communication among persons, the ability
those persons have to control information and participate in active
communication, and time – to load the message, to find information, to
communicate with others, and the loss of time as the user gets caught in
the flow of computer-mediated communication (McMillan & Hwang, 2002). For
a Web portal, the synchronicity may refer to the degree to which users'
input into a portal and the response they receive from the portal are
simultaneous or very quickly, which might be influenced by the Internet
connection speed or the user's expectations, which cannot be controlled by
the portal itself. This dimension seems very strong for perceived
interactivity, with 100% of the participants indicating it:
"Uh… It might take me some time to load. It seems that the speed is kind
of slow; it might be because the site's server is located in China. I am
an impatient person, and I always hope to see many things come out… Just
now I clicked two windows, but neither of them has come out yet… It
requires too much patience." (F1, elaboration)
"It is too slow. The server might have some problem." (F2, elaboration)
"It (the video) will influence the connection speed. I will wait a little
bit more, or I will not see it again." (F3, elaboration)
"It's cool that everything is linked to a movie… But, it seems too much…Why
not try to make some text-based news piece by piece. If the speed of
Internet connection is not fast enough, I can at least look at some
stuff." (F7, elaboration)
"The bad thing about it is that it takes too much time to download. The
broadband technology has to be well developed so that we can enjoy
multimedia online better. How long do I need to wait? If that's the case,
it is better to watch regular-format news on other sites; at least I do not
need to wait. Though it is more vivid to see the moving images, it kind of
wastes my time." (F8, elaboration)
"It is just too slow. It is impossible for me to watch at home without
fast Internet.
This file is 1 minute long. Let's see how long it will take to
download. It is just too slow…I can only read those headlines." (M2,
elaboration)
"Multimedia news sites just came out recently. Some of them are very
successful. I think it is a trend in the future. To enhance the speed and
help users to foster the habit of using it is the key for it to develop
further." (M3, elaboration)
"I am a little bit wondering about the speed. The speed is good so far. I
can accept its speed completely, no problem. The image seems a little bit
delayed, but the sound is good. It is still downloading…I am going to lose
my patience." (M4, orientation)
"Too slow… It is OK for me to wait for 1 minute. If it is 30 minute, I
will be crazy. Speed is the biggest problem." (M7, evaluation)
Interestingly, all the participants deem synchronicity an important
indicator for an interactive Web portal, and most of them are negative
evaluation thoughts. Internet connection speed and the time lag during
video/audio loading seem to be something intimidating users to further use
multimedia features. Many of them mentioned that they would rather resort
to more traditional text-based content after trying and getting
disappointed. Also, compared with orientation thought, evaluation requires
more cognitive capacity and involvement, which may lead to the conclusion
that synchronicity evokes more cognitive involvement than active control or
two-way communication do when users are engaged in browsing of a portal
with multimedia features.
Vividness
On a Web portal, rich media tools such as video, audio, and animation may
be considered tools that increase vividness by enhancing the richness of
the experience. There are 75% of the participants indicating vividness of
multimedia features when they were browsing the portal:
"I love the background music with strong rhythm. I like to see animation."
(F2, evaluation)
"Um… It is like you are watching TV. I like it." (F3, elaboration, evaluation)
"It looks interesting. Very good visual effects." (F8, evaluation)
"It is very interesting with moving image and music." (F9, evaluation)
"Um…very flash, very creative. Oh, it is all in media player format. I
can play it back and forth, cool." (F20, evaluation)
"Here is flash at the very beginning. The sound effect is not
bad. Normally I was irritated by the sound on a Website, but here it is
OK, like watching TV. I like its interface." (M1, evaluation, elaboration)
"Looks very innovative and creative. The multimedia technology is well
employed here." (M3, evaluation)
"I like the music and the flash and animation." (M6, evaluation)
"I like to see those video clips on the screen, very creative. It attracts
me to watch it more." (M10, evaluation)
We found that most of the thoughts under vividness are positive
elaboration, with some falling in the categories of evaluation. Integrated
audio, video and animation on a Web site seem to be an interesting and
creative innovation to portal users. Their first reaction when entering
the site can be described as a happy surprise and they could not wait to
give a try. Even when the active control and synchronicity problems damped
their excitement, many admit that if connection permits, they wouldl still
keep a positive attitude and just loved the vivid feeling and good quality
multimedia might bring to them. Further, note that most of the thoughts
were positive, which may imply that the vividness may be a plus to the
perceived interactivity of a portal with multimedia features.
Discussion and Implication
This protocol analysis generated vivid evidence on what users think and
feel when they are browsing on a Web portal with multimedia features.
Dimensions of Interactivity of A Web Portal
According to Liu and Shrum (2002), previous research found that goal
orientation (whether participants are clearly informed prior to accessing
information that they would search for online) may make a difference in
findings. It was also proposed that active control seemed to be useful,
but only in certain conditions such as goal-directed searches (Ariely,
2000) and not while surfing for pleasure (Bezjian-Avery, et al.,
1998). Since our study ask users to view whatever they want, which is not
goal-directed, there seemed to be a limit to the positive effects of active
control. The result of our study suggests that, without a specified goal
for browsing, user's understanding of the content or structure of a Web
portal may be closely related to the feeling of control over the browsing
behavior.
Two-way communication may turn out to be not strong dimension or indicator
of Web portal interactivity, compared with that of online advertising and
e-commerce Web sites. The breadth and depth of this dimension may
partially depend on both the structure and the function of a Web
portal. Verity of feedback channels and promotion of two-way communication
related functions (e.g. chatroom, discussion board, online dialogue between
users and portal developers, and promotion of search engine use) may
enhance the weight of this dimension in the conceptualization of
interactivity for Web portals.
As McMillan and Hwang (2002) mention, speed of response is a central
concern of both developers and users of interactive media. The result of
our study on synchronicity corresponds to the prior research that a longer
delay tend to result in less favorable attitudes (Liu & Shrum, 2002) and
synchronicity seems to be the most weighted dimensions of interactivity
across all participants of this study. When significant delay is
unavoidable because of the speed bottleneck at the user's end, using plain
text may be helpful, which as been illustrated by users verbalized
intention to resort to text-based content when the multimedia file
downloading speed was slow. Dellaert and Kahn (1999)'s study found when
users were not informed of possible delays, delay had a negative influence
on their evaluation of their experience; in the informed-delay condition,
users had expectations of delay. In our study, we did not pre-warn the
participants that the loading might be slow, and many participants turned
out to be negative about their experience. Further study may compare the
result by lowing user's expectation via informing them the possible slow
speed.
According to the results of our study, vividness evoked considerable
positive thoughts across participants. Whether it could be conceptualized
and operationalized as the fourth dimension of interactivity might still be
too early to predict, but as a key concept in consumer experience and
telepresence, it might imply a direction for future study.
User Cognitive Involvement
The results show that different dimensions of Interactivity may be linked
to distinct cognitive involving experiences. For active control and
two-way communication, the dominant cognitive processing is orientation,
the level of which is relatively lower than evaluation and
elaboration. Vividness seems linked more to higher level cognitive
processing as evaluation. Synchronicity turns out to be the most involved
dimension when users engaged in an interactive environment as a portal with
multimedia features, with mainly elaboration thoughts. For a better and
more interactive portal, more cognitively involving experience should be
facilitated to enhance user learning and deeper cognitive
processing. Higher interactivity can also lead to better learning by
enhancing users' self-efficacy, which might be studied in the future.
Implications
The purpose for which a user is surfing the Internet is a situational
factor that can influence the user's preference for interactivity. Liu and
Shrum (2002) categorize browsing purpose into two types: for information
and for pleasure. When users browsing for information, the ability to
control the way they obtain information becomes important, and other
features of the Website might not be as attractive. When users browsing
for pleasure, the ability to look around and experience the features of the
Website may be important. Future study may make distinction between these
two kinds of experience and empirically test how they may affect the
perceived interactivity and Web site satisfaction.
Motivation for engaging in interactivity may be another direction to follow
up in Web portal studies. The preferences of different levels of
interaction may be due to users' cognitive, social and personality
status. Research in the future should reflect a person's motivation and
affective state in online communication. The understanding of the
distinction may help better utilize the interactivity elements, and reveal
why certain dimensions of interactivity may be weighted more heavily than
others, and thus the features associated with these dimensions may be
perceived as not only more interactive, but also more useful (Liu & Shrum,
2002).
Because this study is an exploratory research with a purposive sample,
instead of being generalized to larger population, the result is more for
getting insights and exploring Web users' cognitive processing during
portal browsing and interactive environment engaging. Future study may
utilize more rigorous techniques to develop valid and reliable measurement
to investigate the effectiveness of multimedia features and its
relationship with interactivity. Further, this study is limited to users
who use Chinese and the Web site selected is Chinese market targeted. The
study might be replicated and extended in the future to explore whether the
findings of Web portal use in terms of integrated multimedia features apply
across cultures.
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