Investigating attributes that have an influence on the user acceptance of mobile applications

Abstract

Mobile applications (apps) have become hugely popular over the last decade. Millions of apps are available, and new apps are developed daily. Most of these are not very successful, and are uninstalled shortly after being downloaded, possibly due to low user acceptance. This study will investigate possible attributes that influence the user acceptance of mobile applications. It will also attempt to determine the importance of the attributes identified. The user acceptance of newly-released apps was identified as a significant problem facing mobile application development. User acceptance of new technologies has been studied for quite some time now, but very few of these studies were applied to mobile applications. Previous studies that do focus on some aspects of user acceptance were not comprehensive, and did not cover all the relevant attributes that have an influence on user acceptance. The available literature regarding user acceptance was studied to gather a list of attributes, which may have a positive or negative influence on the user acceptance of mobile applications. These attributes formed the base for the remainder of the study. During the research process, different types of smartphone users were identified and interviewed. The purpose of the interviews was to gather additional attributes that influence the user acceptance of mobile applications from the users themselves. After the interviews, a content analysis was performed to gather attributes from the interviews. New attributes identified from the interviews include: keeps me updated, clear descriptions, realistic, off-line usability, explanations, remember use, feedback, good-looking icons, too many updates, scaly permissions, affects the rest of the phone, unpredictable, and not aligned with computer version. These attributes were used in combination with those obtained from the literature to construct a questionnaire. A survey was performed using the questionnaire, and the results were statistically analysed. The results were ranked in terms of importance to smartphone users, which revealed the most important attributes having a positive influence on user acceptance of mobile applications as being: functionality, ease of use, relevance, mobility, well-designed and organised interface, and the app being true to its title. Attributes having a negative influence on user acceptance of mobile applications included: bugs, slow apps, advertisements, affects the rest of the phone, and breach of privacy. Another part of the study indicated a preference for certain attributes when in conflict with others, for example users prefer a simplistic design rather than plenty of features, professional looking over colourful and happy, and quiet instead of notifications and reminders. The different preferences of user groups were found to be as follows: Women placed a greater importance on low costs than men. Fun was more important as groups spent more time on their phones. A steep learning curve was a bigger problem as the user's age increased. Appearance and positive ratings and reviews were more important to users who had a purchase history, and apps causing problems were also a bigger issue for these users. Platform consistency was more important to participants from the industry. iPhone users disliked apps that have a steep learning curve, and had a bigger probability of having purchased apps and app content