Gender Difference in the Credibility Perception of Mobile Websites: A Mixed Method Approach

To persuade people to buy a product or service online, they must be visually convinced and attracted to use the sales website. Thus, there is need to understand how different user groups perceive various designs of websites for better adaptation. A lot of research has shown that users' judgment of the credibility of a website is critical to its success. However, in the mobile domain, little has been done empirically to 1) investigate users' credibility perception of a website; and 2) how it changes as the user interface (UI) design is systematically altered. This paper bridges this gap by carrying out sentiment and statistical analyses of users' perceptions of four systematically modified mobile websites among 285 subjects from North America, Africa and Asia. The results show that mobile website design affects the perception of its credibility, with 1) females being more critical and sensitive to UI changes than males; and 2) the grid-layout website design preferred to the list-layout website design by both genders. The study contributes to knowledge in three ways. First, it provides a concise model for understanding users' UI perceptions, expectations and gender differences. Second, it presents important findings that will enable a gender-based mobile website adaptation. Third, it provides a set of empirically backed guidelines for mobile web design.