Assessing users' subjective quality of experience with the world wide web: an exploratory examination of temporal changes in technology acceptance

摘要

Contemporary information technology-(IT)-related research has focused on use or user acceptance as a key dependent measure for valuing IT. By understanding the determinants of IT use, we gain descriptive information about successful IT, and prescriptive information for better deploying IT resources and improving their utility. Although there are several competing theories regarding IT use, research findings often cite their inability to account for temporal changes in usage behaviors. Furthermore, contemporary human-computer interaction perspectives often focus on the robust and growing literature surrounding usability and likeability; however, few studies have provided insight into the components of, or antecedents to, the utility dimension. This research attempts to address these gaps by introducing the construct of users ' quality of experience as a potential mediator between the determinants of use and actual usage behaviors and their outcomes. A pilot survey concerning Internet usage generated potentially relevant items which were later refined into a questionnaire assessing each item 's relative importance to perceptions of quality of experience. Initial indications suggest 10 of the items represent a temporally stable and unidimensional construct. Findings are also interpreted within the context of IT and cognitive/behavioral science perspectives, further providing for face validity of the quality of experience construct. (C) 2001 Academic Press. [References: 35]