電子商務環境中的說服設計

Abstract

「說服」是隨處可見的社會現象與人際互動過程，小至個人行為，大至社會體系的建構、調整與維繫，都可能受到「說服」的影響。過去對於「說服」的研究，歷史堪稱悠久，相關理論主要來自於修辭學、心理學以及社會學等領域；如今，有關「說服」議題的探討則廣及於傳播、行銷、廣告、保健以及環境永續等各個領域。 數位科技的快速發展使得電腦的應用遠超越其原本的運算角色，而資訊產品的普及更促使互動科技（例如電子商務網站）成為一種說服的工具。網頁的設計關乎電子商務系統的成敗，設計方便好用的網頁在過去被認為是電子商務的關鍵成功要素，然若干學者指出，優使性雖然仍屬重要的網頁設計考量，但在吸引使用者或展現網站成效上有其不足；欲達成網站的設置目標，網頁設計應考量其說服的效果。 本研究之目的在於探討電子商務網站如何運用說服手法於網頁設計中以影響使用者；論文內容除了回顧說服理論、說服科技、說服手法等相關文獻之外，包括網站個案研究、使用者研究以及網頁說服力測試等三個分項研究。在網站個案研究部分，主要針對14個購物網站進行檢視與分析，以瞭解電子商務網站如何運用說服手法來影響使用者；在使用者研究部分，主要透過情境探索以瞭解使用者在電子商務環境中的經驗、態度、行為以及對網頁說服要素之反應；在網頁說服力測試部分，則針對購物網站商品頁中的設計要素測量其如何透過不同說服手法的應用而影響商品頁的說服力。 網站個案研究結果顯示：(1)所檢視的網站共運用了二十四種說服手法，其中以「報償」、「表面可信度」、「吸引力」、「建議」、「重複」以及「邏輯」等五種手法最為顯著；(2)在二十四種說服手法中，四種（包括「吸引力」、「重複」、「感性」以及「表面可信度」）與視覺設計有關、九種（如「框飾」、「專業」、「稀有」等）與內容設計有關、六種（如「契機」、「個人化」、「簡化」等）與功能設計有關、一種（即「客製化」）與導覽設計有關、三種（包括「建議」、「社會證明」以及「聲望可信度」）與內容及功能設計有關、一種（即「認同」）與內容及導覽設計有關。使用者研究結果顯示：(1)「吸引力」、「契機」、「社會證明」、「信任」以及「稀有」等五種說服手法對使用者較具有影響力；(2)商品多樣性、支援快速而精準的搜尋、好用的操作介面以及保障交易安全與隱私權等為建立使用者正面態度的基本要件，提供更多附加價值才能促使使用者購買或再訪；(3)使用者對於網站的說服意圖有其個別的因應方式，而使用者平時所累積的說服知識則會影響網頁設計的說服效果。網頁說服力測試結果顯示：(1)將說服手法應用於商品頁的介面設計中確能提升商品頁的說服力；(2)在商品頁介面中應用說服設計手法所產生的說服力會受到商品類型的影響；(3)整體而言，在商品頁介面設計中訴諸「感性」與「可信度」比訴諸「理性」有更大的說服力；(4)在商品頁介面設計中同時訴諸「理性」、「感性」與「可信度」之說服手法比訴諸三者中的任一說服手法有更大的說服力。 本研究之相關成果有助於瞭解如何應用說服手法於網頁設計中以提昇其說服效果並達到網站的說服目的，並可為未來建構有關說服設計之知識管理系統提供參考。

Persuasion is a form of communication that pervades our society. It not only guides our personal behavior, but also serves to establish, modify, and maintain our social system. The study of persuasion has a long history. The theories of persuasion are derived largely from the research areas of rhetoric, psychology, and social science. Today the topic of persuasion has been studied in various research areas, such as communication, marketing, advertising, healthcare, and environmental sustainability. With the rapid development of digital technology, the uses of computers have far beyond their original role of executing calculation. The prevalence of computing devices has made interactive technology, such as an e-commerce Web site, a tool of persuasion. Web design is critical to the success of e-commerce. Designing a usable Web site has been traditionally recognized as a key success factor to e-commerce. Several researchers suggested that though usability is still important for Web design, it is no longer enough to make a Web site engaging and effective. Web sites should be designed as vital instruments of persuasion in order to achieve their goals. This research aims at examining how e-commerce Web sites utilize persuasion principles and influence online shoppers by persuasive design. In this thesis, three studies are presented following a review on the literature about the studies of persuasion, the persuasive technology, and the persuasion principles. The first study, an evaluation on 14 shopping Web sites, was to examine how persuasion principles were leveraged by current e-commerce Web sites to influence online shoppers. The second study, a user study, was to understand users’ experiences, attitudes, and behaviors when practicing online shopping and how they react to the persuasive features on the sites. The third study, a lab experiment, was to investigate how design features on e-commerce product pages can influence their persuasiveness by applying persuasive means. The results of shopping Web sites evaluation revealed that: (1) a total of 24 persuasion tactics were used in the selected Web sites, and rewards, surface credibility, attractiveness, suggestion, and repetition were among the most prominent tactics; and (2) among the 24 utilized persuasion tactics, 4 (i.e., attractiveness, repetition, emotion, and surface credibility) were related to visual design, 9 (e.g., framing, expertise, scarcity) were related to content design, 6 (e.g., kairos, personalization, reduction) were related to function design, 1 (i.e., tailoring) was related to navigation design, 3 (i.e., suggestion, social proof, and reputed credibility) were related to both content and function, and 1 (i.e., identification) was related to both content and navigation design. The findings of the user study indicated that: (1) attractiveness, kairos, social proof, trustworthiness, and scarcity appear to be more effective in influencing online shoppers; (2) Wide product selection, fast and accurate product search facilitation, easily used interface, and security/privacy protection are minimum requirements to form a positive user attitude toward the site. What can persuade users to buy and revisit the sites is to provide more added value but not superficial enticements; and (3) users have their own strategies in coping with the persuasive attempts from shopping Web sites, and this everyday persuasive knowledge can influence the persuasive power of the tactics implemented. The results obtained from the experiment investigating the persuasiveness of product pages showed that: (1) the persuasiveness of a product page can be enhanced by appropriately applying persuasive means to the product page design; (2) the persuasiveness of a product page derived from applying persuasive means is affected by product type; (3) on the whole, the persuasive means that appeal to users’ emotions and the credibility of the product pages appeared to have greater persuasive power than that appeals to users’ logic; and (4) combining multiple persuasive means lead to greater persuasiveness than using any of them individually. The results obtained from this research contributed to better understanding of how to achieve an e-commerce system’s persuasive goal by leveraging persuasion tactics in designing a more persuasive Web site. Moreover, they offered insights into future development the knowledge management system facilitating learning, research, and practice on persuasive design.