The Effect Of Interface Complexity And Shopping Motivation On Users' Visual Behavior In The Mobile Online Shopping Context

With the development of the mobile Internet,more and more consumers do shopping through mobile devices.O2O(online-to-offline)commerce has become a rising paradigm that uses the online channel to propel offline sales.In this study,the recommendation interfaces of O2 O APPs were taken as the research object.A self-report online survey and an eye-tracking experiment were conducted to explore the effect of users' shopping motivation and visual complexity of mobile interfaces on the users' visual behavior and cognitive processing in the mobile online shopping context.The self-report online survey invited 81 participants to evaluate the visual complexity of 15 different mobile interfaces.The results show that the diversity of content tile in the mobile interfaces can affect the perceived visual complexity in terms of complexity and crowding.Meanwhile,the size and number of images can influence the perceived visual complexity in terms of interactivity and diversity.35 participants attended the eye-tracking experiment,which aimed to explore the interaction effect between the visual complexity of the mobile interfaces and the users' shopping motivation.In the goal-oriented motivation context,the results show that interface complexity has a positive effect on task completion time,fixation duration and fixation count,but a negative effect on perceived ease of use and user satisfaction.Meanwhile,in the recreational motivation context,the visual complexity of mobile interfaces only has an inverted-U effect on task completion time,fixation duration and fixation count.Therefore,this study suggests that the mobile interface with low visual complexity is the optimum for goal-oriented shoppers and the mobile interface with medium complexity is the optimum for both recreational shoppers and merchants.This study innovatively combines the two variables of interface visual complexity and shopping motivation to explore the impact on user behavior,physiological and psychological aspects.The results of this study enrich the theoretical knowledge of mobile interface design and fill a gap in the mobile marketing research field.In terms of the design application,this study provides specific suggestions on adjusting interface visual complexity for consumers with distinct shopping motivations,which can improve user experience in the mobile online shopping context,and contribute to the operators of O2 O platforms to refine their strategy based on the differentiated performance and characteristics of different user groups.