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The Role of Aesthetics in Intentions to Use Digital Health Interventions

The Role of Aesthetics in Intentions to Use Digital Health Interventions
The Role of Aesthetics in Intentions to Use Digital Health Interventions
Digital interventions are increasingly recognised as cost-effective treatment solutions for a number of health concerns, but adoption and use of these interventions can be low, affecting outcomes. This research sought to identify how individual aesthetic facets and perceived trust may influence perceptions toward and intentions to use an online health intervention by building on the Technology Acceptance Model, where perceived attractiveness, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment are thought to predict behavioural intentions towards a website. An online questionnaire study assessed perceptions of nine stimuli varying in four aesthetic facets (simplicity, diversity, colour & craftsmanship), utilising a quasi-experimental within-subjects design with a repetition among three different groups: individuals from the general population who were shown stimuli referring to general health (GP-H) (N = 257); individuals experiencing an eating disorder and shown stimuli referring to eating disorders (ED-ED) (N = 109); and individuals from the general population who were shown stimuli referring to eating disorders (GP-ED) (N = 235). Linear mixed models demonstrated that perceptions of simplicity and craftsmanship significantly influenced perceptions of usefulness, ease of use, enjoyment and trust, which in turn influenced behavioural intentions. This study demonstrates that developing the TAM model to add a further construct of perceived trust could be beneficial for digital health intervention developers. In this study, simplicity and craftsmanship were identified as the aesthetic facets with the greatest impact on user perceptions of digital health interventions.
2767-3170
Denison-Day, James L.
49c0d012-eadc-44eb-b06c-da7714be145a
Muir, Sarah
019137d3-2f8c-406c-ac6e-2c57ddd6ce32
Newell, Ciaran
a69c9113-8da6-4e8c-84b6-cf55d1dbad7f
Appleton, Katherine M.
2918e7bb-2293-4187-99fd-1270c19a1f99
Denison-Day, James L.
49c0d012-eadc-44eb-b06c-da7714be145a
Muir, Sarah
019137d3-2f8c-406c-ac6e-2c57ddd6ce32
Newell, Ciaran
a69c9113-8da6-4e8c-84b6-cf55d1dbad7f
Appleton, Katherine M.
2918e7bb-2293-4187-99fd-1270c19a1f99

Denison-Day, James L., Muir, Sarah, Newell, Ciaran and Appleton, Katherine M. (2023) The Role of Aesthetics in Intentions to Use Digital Health Interventions. PLOS digital health, 2 (6), [e0000274]. (doi:10.1371/journal.pdig.0000274).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Digital interventions are increasingly recognised as cost-effective treatment solutions for a number of health concerns, but adoption and use of these interventions can be low, affecting outcomes. This research sought to identify how individual aesthetic facets and perceived trust may influence perceptions toward and intentions to use an online health intervention by building on the Technology Acceptance Model, where perceived attractiveness, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment are thought to predict behavioural intentions towards a website. An online questionnaire study assessed perceptions of nine stimuli varying in four aesthetic facets (simplicity, diversity, colour & craftsmanship), utilising a quasi-experimental within-subjects design with a repetition among three different groups: individuals from the general population who were shown stimuli referring to general health (GP-H) (N = 257); individuals experiencing an eating disorder and shown stimuli referring to eating disorders (ED-ED) (N = 109); and individuals from the general population who were shown stimuli referring to eating disorders (GP-ED) (N = 235). Linear mixed models demonstrated that perceptions of simplicity and craftsmanship significantly influenced perceptions of usefulness, ease of use, enjoyment and trust, which in turn influenced behavioural intentions. This study demonstrates that developing the TAM model to add a further construct of perceived trust could be beneficial for digital health intervention developers. In this study, simplicity and craftsmanship were identified as the aesthetic facets with the greatest impact on user perceptions of digital health interventions.

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Accepted/In Press date: 16 May 2023
Published date: 22 June 2023

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 490952
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/490952
ISSN: 2767-3170
PURE UUID: a4218838-a13d-416c-b4b9-3ff7dbe4732f
ORCID for James L. Denison-Day: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0223-0005
ORCID for Sarah Muir: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7444-7321

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Date deposited: 10 Jun 2024 16:40
Last modified: 19 Sep 2024 01:55

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Contributors

Author: Sarah Muir ORCID iD
Author: Ciaran Newell
Author: Katherine M. Appleton

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