Click or Slide? Research on the Effect of Page-Turning Actions on Users’ Online Immersion Intensity

Abstract

With the popularization of mobile terminal, the experience of human-computer interaction is catching increasing public attention. In the human-computer interaction process, the interaction between users and mechanical devices not only includes the interaction between users and the content presented by mechanical devices, but also includes the interaction between users’ actions and mechanical devices themselves. Page-turning is a basic way for users to interact with the mobile terminal, which has an important impact on users’ online experience in mobile terminal usage. According to the embodied cognition theory, this study investigates the effect of page-turning（clicking vs. sliding）on users’ online immersion intensity, verifies the mediating effect of motion fluency, and examines the moderating effect of animation visual effect consistency through three experiments. The paper confirms that different page-turning modes will affect users’ online immersion intensity in the process of using mobile terminal through three studies. Study 1 proves that different page-turning actions will affect the intensity of online immersion, and verifies the mediating role of motion fluency in this process. Sliding page-turning will make a higher degree of motion fluency, which in turn leads to a higher intensity of online immersion. Study 2 verifies the moderating effect of animation visual effect consistency, which shows that when the animation visual effect is inconsistent, sliding page-turning will lead to a higher intensity of online immersion, and motion fluency mediates this process. When the animation visual effect is consistent, no significant difference is found in the impact of sliding and clicking on users’ online immersion. The mediating effect of motion fluency is also not significant in statistics. In study 3, we add a no-animation condition to create a control group on the basis of study 2, which successfully verifies the moderating role of animation visual effect consistency and the mediating role of motion fluency again. It shows that when there is no animation or when the animation visual effect is inconsistent, sliding page-turning will lead to a higher intensity of online immersion. When the animation visual effect is consistent, different page-turning actions have no significant effect on online immersion intensity. Study 3 also demonstrates that the online immersion triggered by the consistent animation visual effect is higher than the online immersion without any animation. The online immersion generated by no animation is higher than the online immersion triggered by the inconsistent animation visual effect. This study enriches the research of the embodied cognition theory on the relationship between actions and online immersion, further deepens the intermediary mechanism and boundary conditions of page-turning actions and online immersion, and provides some practical advice for enterprises to improve users’ online immersion and online experience.