Rethinking a Designers’ Rule of Thumb: Influence of Information Seeking and Consumption Goals on Mobile Commerce Interface Design

• Published in: Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research Vol. 16; no. 5; pp. 1631 - 1647
• Main Authors: Hwang, Sooa, Park, Hyunah, Oh, Kyunghui, Hwang, Sangwoong, Joo, Jaewoo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Curicó MDPI AG 01-08-2021
• Subjects: Attitudes; Commerce; Consumer behavior; Consumers; Consumption; consumption goal; Design; Designers; Electronic commerce; hybrid product; information seeking; Information seeking behavior; Marketing; Mobile commerce; Product development; Product information; Samsung Electronics; Shopping; Smartphones; Usability
• ISSN: 0718-1876; 0718-1876
• DOI: 10.3390/jtaer16050092

We investigated whether adding product information in mobile commerce improved consumers’ attitudes toward a product and whether this relationship was moderated by consumption goals. We conducted two field experiments in which we recruited parents in Korea and the USA and asked them how they evaluated two childcare hybrid products (HPs) newly developed by Samsung Electronics designers. The results revealed that participants exposed to additional information about the HPs evaluated them more favorably than those who were not exposed. However, this relationship disappeared when a consumption goal was activated. Our findings establish a dynamic relationship between information seeking and consumption goals, asking designers to rethink their rule of thumb in the mobile commerce context.