Relationship Between Trust and Usability in Virtual Environments: An Ongoing Study

Usability and trust have been observed to be related in several domains including web retail, information systems, and e-health. Trust in technology reflects beliefs about the attributes of a technology. Research has shown that trust is a key factor for the success of different systems – e.g., e-market, e-commerce, and social networks. Trust in technology can be supported or prevented by the perceived usability. Therefore, a low level of usability could compromise an individual’s trust in their use of a technology, resulting in a negative attitude towards a product. Even if this relationship has been seen as important in the fields listed above, there is limited research which empirically assesses trust and usability in virtual reality (VR). This work will present the first set of data on the relationship between usability and trust in VR. To gather this data, three different VR systems (Desktop 3D tool, CAVE, and a flight simulator) were tested. The findings show that (i) the best-known questionnaire to measure usability and trust could be applied to VR, (ii) there is a strong relationship between people’s satisfaction and trust in the use of VR, (iii) the relationship between usability and trust exists for different systems.

[1]  Howard Rheingold,et al.  Virtual Reality: Exploring the Brave New Technologies , 1991 .

[2]  Dana E. Sims,et al.  Trust in leadership: A multi-level review and integration , 2007 .

[3]  Oscar Mauricio Serrano Jaimes,et al.  EVALUACION DE LA USABILIDAD EN SITIOS WEB, BASADA EN EL ESTANDAR ISO 9241-11 (International Standard (1998) Ergonomic requirements For office work with visual display terminals (VDTs)-Parts II: Guidance on usability , 2012 .

[4]  Hunter G Hoffman,et al.  Water-friendly virtual reality pain control during wound care. , 2004, Journal of clinical psychology.

[5]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  Trust and TAM in Online Shopping: An Integrated Model , 2003, MIS Q..

[6]  Colin Camerer,et al.  Not So Different After All: A Cross-Discipline View Of Trust , 1998 .

[7]  Nancy K. Lankton,et al.  What does it mean to trust facebook?: examining technology and interpersonal trust beliefs , 2011, DATB.

[8]  Jeff Sauro,et al.  The Factor Structure of the System Usability Scale , 2009, HCI.

[9]  Jason Bennett Thatcher,et al.  Trust in a specific technology: An investigation of its components and measures , 2011, TMIS.

[10]  Barbara O Rothbaum,et al.  Cognitive behavioral therapy for public‐speaking anxiety using virtual reality for exposure , 2005, Depression and anxiety.

[11]  Varun Grover,et al.  The Role of System Trust in Business-to-Consumer Transactions , 2003, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[12]  Susan K. Lippert,et al.  Human resource information systems (HRIS) and technology trust , 2005, J. Inf. Sci..

[13]  Patrice Renaud,et al.  Effectiveness of virtual reality exposure in the treatment of arachnophobia using 3D games. , 2006, Technology and health care : official journal of the European Society for Engineering and Medicine.

[14]  D. Gefen,et al.  E-commerce: the role of familiarity and trust , 2000 .

[15]  Ann L. Fruhling,et al.  The influence of user interface usability on rural consumers' trust of e-health services , 2006, Int. J. Electron. Heal..

[16]  Stefano Federici,et al.  On the dimensionality of the System Usability Scale: a test of alternative measurement models , 2009, Cognitive Processing.

[17]  J. B. Brooke,et al.  SUS: A 'Quick and Dirty' Usability Scale , 1996 .

[18]  Bruce H. Thomas,et al.  Virtual Reality as a Pediatric Pain Modulation Technique: A Case Study , 2003, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[19]  Glyn Lawson,et al.  Empirical evidence, evaluation criteria and challenges for the effectiveness of virtual and mixed reality tools for training operators of car service maintenance , 2015, Comput. Ind..

[20]  Batya Friedman,et al.  Trust online , 2000, CACM.

[21]  Charles J. Kacmar,et al.  Developing and Validating Trust Measures for e-Commerce: An Integrative Typology , 2002, Inf. Syst. Res..

[22]  L. Hosmer.  TRUST: THE CONNECTING LINK BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ETHICS , 1995 .

[23]  James R. Lewis,et al.  Usability: Lessons Learned … and Yet to Be Learned , 2014, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[24]  Larry F. Hodges,et al.  Use of Virtual Reality as a Distractor for Painful Procedures in a Patient with Pediatric Cancer: A Case Study , 2003, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[25]  S. Sundqvist,et al.  Measuring inter-organizational trust—a critical review of the empirical research in 1990–2003 , 2007 .

[26]  Mel Slater,et al.  A Framework for Immersive Virtual Environments (FIVE): Speculations on the Role of Presence in Virtual Environments , 1997, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[27]  A. Vingerhoets,et al.  The use of virtual reality and audiovisual eyeglass systems as adjunct analgesic techniques: A review of the literature , 2005, Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

[28]  B. Rothbaum,et al.  Virtual reality exposure therapy for Vietnam veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. , 2001, The Journal of clinical psychiatry.

[29]  Fred D. Davis.  Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology , 1989, MIS Q..

[30]  Marie Christine Roy,et al.  The impact of interface usability on trust in Web retailers , 2001, Internet Res..