The effect of multimodality on customers' decision-making and experiencing: A comparative study

The primary objective of this article is to present the findings of an experimental study on the use of a human-like “naturalistic” avatar (of both genders) for information presentations. The primary goal is to investigate how users' frame of mind, purchasing behavior, and satisfaction are affected by being presented with information by a naturalistic avatar that lacks expressive capabilities. Two different types of information presentations were developed and empirically tested on 48 participants, namely: (i) two dimensional static graphical and textual information presentation and (ii) non-expressive naturalistic avatar. For this comparative research study, a simplified version of the user experience model that was used in our earlier research (the EUX-DM) was selected to serve as the measurement model. Participants' perceived values of the measured qualities were found to be independent of both their own and the naturalistic avatar's gender, and the non-expressive avatar had a positive effect and a stronger encouragement on participants' intention to purchase, usage attitude, and satisfaction than other types of information presentations.