Usability as Enhancement of Trust

As mentioned earlier, Cheskin Research (1999) reported that effective navigation on websites is related to the trustworthiness of e-commerce. Therefore, we can claim that usability issues constitute a clear threat for e-commerce if they are undervalued and their importance is underestimated.

The concept of usability has not been traditionally connected to trust. For example, Hertzum, Andersen, Andersen and Hansen (2002) state that, "although performance-biased perspectives on usability are giving way to more user-centered, satisfaction aware perspectives the notion of trust has been notably absent until the concept of usability started to appear in discussions of websites and e-commerce." Indeed, emergence of the web technology has enriched, but also complicated, the usability concept in many ways.

Usability can be defined as the extent to which the functions of a product or a system that has utility for the user can be conducted effectively, efficiently and satisfactorily (ISO 9241-11, 1998). In everyday language, usability means ease of use. Good usability is achieved by designing a product, tool or service in such a way that it supports and suits its intended use. The intended use an e-commerce site should support is the purchasing intentions and actual purchasing process and whatever may be of interest to the consumer after the purchase has been made.

It is perhaps good to add that although design and usability are inseparably related, they operate on different ontological premises. Design is a concrete implementation, while usability manifests itself in the human behaviour and cognition. Usability is thus not inherent in design but, is rather perceived and experienced from using it. The relation between usability and trust can be understood by thinking of good usability as an indicator of quality. Quality, in turn, indicates the dealer's competence and in an e-commerce environment, competence is a precondition to trust (Figure 1). ISO 9126-1 standard (2001) supports this view by including usability in the software product quality model. Quality can also be thought of as a way for the online vendor to intervene in the uncertain situation (McKnight and Chervany, 2001). An interesting viewpoint — quoting the Roman architect Vitruvius — is the analogy between evaluating buildings and evaluating e-commerce websites for their firmness, functional convenience and representational delight (Kim, Lee, Han and Lee, 2002). The proposed constructs are also cornerstones of the usability concept. Fogg, Marshall, Laraki, Osipovich, Varma, Fang et al. (2001) also consider ease of use as one of the factors that contribute to the credibility of a website. Credibility can be seen as one attribute of a trustworthy entity.

Figure 1: Relation Between Design, Usability and Trust

There are several aspects of online shops' design that influence usability. Visual design, information provision and interaction — the steps that one needs to take to accomplish an action — play a part in usability. Nielsen (2002) argues that to enhance the usability of online shops, the most important thing is to give sufficient information about the products and to use both text and images to demonstrate the product to the users. Effective product pages should also show availability, product options and total cost. In a good online shop, all products on sale should also have good images. In the same vein, Rhodes (1998) is concerned about sufficient information and gives the following guidelines:

1. Help your users to understand your site's security. Tell them about encryption and, to demonstrate objectivity, provide a link to an external website that focuses on security issues.

2. Be sure to offer telephone and fax numbers to users who are uncomfortable with online transactions.

3. Provide your users with the physical location of the company so that they know that the company really does exist.

4. Allow users to request a catalogue, brochure or other promotional material.

5. Make your return and refund policy blatantly clear.

6. Never require your users to enter more personal information than necessary.

7. Make your shipping policy clear and easy to understand.

8. Provide your users with "a bill of rights."

Ease of use has been found more important when the task requires more interaction with the interface, such as exploring the available information about the products. Ease of use, however, plays a minor role when the interface is used for purchasing a product (Gefen and Straub, 2000). This makes a point about the contextuality of the user's usability requirements and expectations. In this study, contextuality refers to these requirements' relatedness to the nature of the task and the related setting.

Different design propositions for e-commerce site design are abundant both in the literature and on the Internet (see e.g., Karvonen, 2000; Karvonen and Parkkinen, 2001; and Kim and Moon, 1998). However, design solutions that go beyond the general principles of the design and functionality of e-commerce websites should be given careful thought before application. The outcome may not be exactly what was suggested in the guidelines, because is not always possible to modify the design in such a way that it brings about certain reactions. The impact may be nonexistent, or perhaps even negative. For example, Riegelsberger and Sasse (2002) noticed that not much benefit was gained from including photographs as trust builders in an online-vendor's website. Steinbr ck, Schaumburg, Duda and Kr ger (2002), on the other hand, found that photographs improved the trustworthiness of an e-commerce site. Thus, they state that, "[including the staff's photographs] is an effective strategy to increase consumer trust in an online-vendor." These results raise the question of how the researchers arrived at quite different conclusions about the same topic.

In our opinion, usability should be given attention when designing a trustworthy e-commerce site. For example, Egger's (2001) statement that, "Generally, ease-of-use is perceived as a sign that the company understands, cares for and respects its customers" supports this view.

Summary Based on Earlier Literature

Uncertainty and risk are fundamental preconditions for trust. Trust itself can be defined as confidence in the reliability of a person or system regarding a given set of outcomes or events. In electronic business, trust may be defined as an individual's belief in the competence, dependability and security of the system. Aspects related to the user interface affect how the customer judges the vendor in these respects. These aspects include navigation, design and presentation, overall functionality and general information about the ways of contacting the vendor or delivery terms. In Figure 2, the different factors are shown in a combined representation of trust and e-commerce.

Figure 2: A Combined Representation of Trust and E-Commerce (Adapted from McKnight and Chervany, 2001)

The qualities that communicate trustworthiness and the aspects that create a sense of risk and uncertainty are summarized in Table 1.

1. Communicators of trustworthiness in web store design

   • Navigation

   • Design

   • Technology (fulfillment and speed of the site)

   • Data security

   • System feedback

   • Contact information

   • Fulfilment (how clearly the site guides the ordering process)

2. Communicators of trustworthiness in a web vendor

   • Familiarity and previous experiences with the vendor

   • Brand of the vendor

   • Domestic vendor

3. Communicators of trustworthiness in products

   • Widely known trademarks

4. Threats and problems creating risks and uncertainty

   • Data security (credit cards)

   • Information privacy (how the customers' personal data will be used)

   • Lack of rules or legal norms in e-business

   • Inability to touch, feel, see or assess the quality of the goods

Security and privacy are important concerns of e-commerce. Consumers are especially worried about making online purchases with a credit card and about the purposes for which vendors may use the demographic data they often collect. Researchers agree that more experienced web shoppers are more concerned about privacy than other customers. However, perceptions of security differ. In some studies, more experienced web users had more negative perceptions of security (Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky, 1999; Hoffman et al., 1999), whereas the results of Miyazaki and Fernandez (2001) indicated the opposite.

Some of the threats and problems of trust are difficult to alter. The customer's inability to actually touch or try a product in an online shop is an issue that is difficult to overcome with the present technology. The same is true of whether the vendor is foreign or domestic to the customer, or if the vendor already has an established trademark with a good reputation. Of all these factors impacting trust, site design quality in a broad sense, including security, is the easiest to be modified.