“My name’s Chris…”: the Effect of Producer Visibility on the Use of Interactive Websites

Light, A. and Wakeman, I. (2000)“My name’s Chris…”: the Effect of Producer Visibility on the Use of Interactive Websites Proc. OZCHI2000

The use of websites for requesting products and services raises issues of trust and accountability relating to the producer of the site. An experiment was conducted into the effect of producer visibility at the point that users make such requests of a site. The experiment explored the effect of three statements which used different forms of address towards the users of an anonymous recruitment agency site: passive, corporate and personal. Users were asked for their responses to each voice in terms of trustworthiness, accountability and friendliness. The results suggest that the different voices influence users in consistent ways, depending on the nature of the service being offered. The implications for design are discussed.