The Effect of the Intrinsic Quality of UI of Mobile Apps on the Behavioral Intention to Use the Apps

From the time when mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs launched in the late 1990s, the user interfaces (UI) of mobile applications have become more complicated and ambiguous. Such user environments limit the ease of use of applications and negatively impact not only the intrinsic quality of the UI, but also users’ behavioral intention to use the applications. However, a literature review shows that prior research in information systems (IS) has not shown much interest in the relationship between the intrinsic quality of the UI of mobile applications and users’ behavioral intention to use said applications. The main research goals of this study are: (1) to examine the direct effects of the accuracy and reputation of the UI of mobile applications on users’ behavioral intention to use the applications, and (2) to find the relationships between the accuracy of the UI of the applications and the ease of use of the applications as well as between the ease of use of applications and the reputation of the UI of the applications. A survey was conducted to collect data, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was then used for the analysis. The results of this study indicate that the accuracy of the UI of mobile applications has a significant, direct effect on the ease of use of the applications and on users’ behavioral intention to use said applications. In addition, the ease of use of the mobile applications also has a significant effect on the reputation of the UI of the applications as well as on users’ behavioral intention to use said applications. Finally, a direct effect was also found for the reputation of the UI of the applications on users’ intention to use the applications.