1. Acceptance of Mobile Technology in
Hedonic Scenarios
Marina Abad1, Itxaso Díaz2 and Markel Vigo3
1Deusto University 2Úbiqa - Social Communication 3Laboratory of Human Mobility and
Technology
BCS Conference in Human-Computer Interaction – HCI 2010
September 9, Dundee (Scotland)

2. 0. Outline
1. Introduction to TAM and its relationship with HCI
2. Motivation for a new TAM and research questions
3. Application scenario and contextualization
4. Data analysis and results
5. Discussion on results
6. Outcomes
7. Limitations of the study
Acceptance of Mobile Technology in Hedonic Scenarios BCS HCI 2010

3. 1. Introduction
• Technology Acceptance Models (TAM)
- Rooted in the Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980) and
applied to computer usage behaviour
- A tool to measure usage intentions of technology after a brief trial
- Self reported questionnaires to measure:
 Perceived Ease of Use, PEOU
 Perceived Usefulness, PU (stronger determinant of usage)
- User acceptance of technology in workplace settings
Perceived Ease
of Use
External Behavioural Actual Systems
Variables Intention to Use Use
Perceived
Usefulness
Acceptance of Mobile Technology in Hedonic Scenarios BCS HCI 2010

4. 1. Introduction
• The role of TAM in HCI (or IS vs. HCI)
“one day someone will write a critique of TAM for the HCI community to talk of
‘Perceived Usefulness’ or ‘Perceived Ease of Use’ as determinants of behaviour
(or intent) simply says very little to the HCI community, and if they do account for
intent to use, they say nothing of actual use.” BCS HCIPaperReviewer
- Focus:
 IS tends to be macro, drawing from social and organizational psychology
 HCI has a more micro focus, drawing from cognitive psychology
- Emphasize:
 IS highlights the important role of perceived usefulness
 HCI focuses (not only) on the ease of use
- Weak points:
 Most IS has not examined the role of design features
 HCI treats usability as a catchall concept and usefulness may fade away
100% usable systems do not guarantee that people will make use of them
Acceptance of Mobile Technology in Hedonic Scenarios BCS HCI 2010

5. 2. Motivation
• TAMs have been applied in workplace settings
• What about technology acceptance on leisure settings?
• Hedonic activities involve fun, pleasure, playfulness
• In addition to Usefulness and Ease of Use (which have proved to be
stable) a new hedonic component needs to be included
• In hedonic scenarios the hedonic component and ease of use prevail
over usefulness
• Never studied the hedonic component when mobile devices are
used
Acceptance of Mobile Technology in Hedonic Scenarios BCS HCI 2010

6. 2. Motivation
• Research goal: develop a TAM for mobile devices in leisure scenarios
• Research question 1: are mobile devices inherently joyful?
• Research question 2: what prevails when mobile devices are used in
leisure activities,
- The leisure component of the mobile device?
- Or the playfulness of the environment?
Acceptance of Mobile Technology in Hedonic Scenarios BCS HCI 2010

7. 3. Initial proposal for a TAM
• Consider prior work on TAMs
- Affective
- Mobile
• Take (and adapt) the variables for our application scenario
• As a result we have 5 factors and 21 variables/items
- PU: Perceived Usefulness (8) e.g., it made me learn about the activity
- PEOU: Perceived Ease of Use (5) e.g., we felt at ease
- SAT: Satisfaction (4) e.g., I’m satisfied with this activity
- PP: Perceived Playfulness (4)e.g., it was fun
- BI: Behavioural Intention (1), I would like to participate again in the same
activity
• Resulting questionnaire was filled out by users after experiencing
mobile technology in a hedonic scenario
Acceptance of Mobile Technology in Hedonic Scenarios BCS HCI 2010

8. 4. Application scenario
• Event taking place in Cáceres (Spain)
- Fostering social cohesion by means of technology
- Emphasizing the innovative aspects of the town
• 79 people aged (M=16, sd=1.4)
- High school teenagers
- Frequent users of mobile technology and familiar with IT
• Had to accomplish a city tour
- A number of stages (taking 4 hours)
- Making use of most features of the phone:
 Online maps + GPS for geolocation
 Videorecording
 QR codes
 SMS and MMS
Acceptance of Mobile Technology in Hedonic Scenarios BCS HCI 2010

9. 5. Data processing and results
• Applied PCA (Principal Components Analysis) to results
- Detect underlying dimensions
- Data reduction
Preliminary approach 21 non-structured items
PU PEOU SAT PP
8 items 5 items 4 items 4 items
PCA
Resulting scales 7 items 3 items 4 items
Perceived Perceived Perceived
Usefulness Ease Of Use Enjoyment
21.3% 17.3% 21.6%
Acceptance of Mobile Technology in Hedonic Scenarios BCS HCI 2010

10. 5. Results
Resulting scales 7 items 3 items 4 items
Perceived Perceived Perceived
Usefulness Ease Of Use Enjoyment
21.3% 17.3% 21.6%
• Explanatory power: the three factors account for more than 60% of
variance
- Internal consistency
- Balanced distribution
• To an extent resulting model corresponds to the theoretical model
except for PE
Acceptance of Mobile Technology in Hedonic Scenarios BCS HCI 2010

11. 5. Results
• Check the hypotheses:
H1. There is a positive relationship between PU and Behavioural Intention
standarizedβ=0.395, p<.001
H2. There is a positive relationship between PEOU and Behavioural Intention
standarizedβ=0.186, p<.05
H3. There is a positive relationship between PE and Behavioural Intention
standarizedβ=0.425, p<.001
• Predictive power: regression analysis proves the strength of the
model, R2=0.61
Perceived
Usefulness .395
Behavioural
Perceived Ease .186 Intention to Use
of Use R2=.61
Perceived .425
Enjoyment
Acceptance of Mobile Technology in Hedonic Scenarios BCS HCI 2010

12. 6. Discussion
• The items that explicitly mention the activity and technology
- Load on Perceived Enjoyment
 SAT1: I am satisfied with this activity
 SAT2: The activity has been agreeable and enriching
- Loads on Perceived Ease of Use
 SAT4: I like those activities that require the use of technology
• Results suggest that, in hedonic outdoors scenarios, the activity
prevails over the technology
- Higher explanatory power of PE where SAT1 and SAT2 load
- Outdoors experience is a stronger predictor for technology adoption
• The quality of the outdoors experience has a stronger affective
(enjoyment) component than the use of devices
Acceptance of Mobile Technology in Hedonic Scenarios BCS HCI 2010

13. 6. Outcomes
• A TAM that considers both mobile, enjoyment variables in addition
to traditional variables
• Contributes building a repository of similar studies that can lead to
the robustness and extrapolation of similar studies
• Stronger explanatory (60%) and predictive power than state-of-the
art approaches. Typically 30%-40% of the variance
• Confirms the relevant role of the affective components for
technology adoption
Acceptance of Mobile Technology in Hedonic Scenarios BCS HCI 2010

14. 7. Limitations
• Context: mobile devices + outdoors funny activities
• The device was shared in each group
• The sample (N=79) may not be enough
• Homogeneous sample
• Did not operate different kind of devices
• Exploratory rather than confirmatory
Acceptance of Mobile Technology in Hedonic Scenarios BCS HCI 2010

15. Acceptance of Mobile Technology in
Hedonic Scenarios
Marina Abad1, Itxaso Díaz2 and Markel Vigo3
Questions?
1Deusto University 2Úbiqa - Social Communication 3Laboratory of Human Mobility and
Technology
BCS Conference in Human-Computer Interaction – HCI 2010
September 9, Dundee (Scotland)