Does Beauty Matter to Service Consumers? The Influence of Visual Appeal on Self-Service Technology (SST) Acceptance

Abstract

The visual appeal of self-service interfaces is known to influence consumers’ subsequent evaluations of the system’s other features and enjoyment; however, the impact of visual appeal on subsequent judgments of system and information quality and hedonic motivation, and consequently on shaping behavioral intentions to use a particular self-service, has not been specifically studied. Therefore, this study examines the impact of visual appeal on the acceptance of self-service technologies using meta-analytic structural equation modeling with 63 independent samples (26,144 cumulative respondents) drawn from 58 empirical studies. As a result, visual appeal demonstrates strong correlations with system quality, information quality, and hedonic motivation and appears to indirectly influence perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and behavioral intention to use new SST. The findings shed light on the primacy effect of visual appeal on consumers’ acceptance of SSTs and the substantive effect of visual appeal in shaping perceptions of system and information quality.

Keywords:

• Visual appeal
• system quality
• information quality
• self-service technology (SST)
• technology acceptance
• meta-analytic structural equation modeling
• user interface design

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea [NRF- 2020S1A5B5A17089911]. The research materials used for the meta-analyses were supported by the National Library of Korea (RINK).

Notes on contributors

Hyunjin Kim

Hyunjin Kim is a researcher specialized in service design research. She received her MA and PhD from the College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences of Brunel University. Her research interests include user interface design, transportation service design, design user psychology, inclusive design, and design management.