The Influence of Worrying on User Experience

Abstract

The vast majority of the German population uses the internet on a regular basis. Past research has shown that depressiveness has a negative influence on the user experience of websites, which in turn is an important predictor for the success of web content. The present study investigates the influence of worrying and intolerance of uncertainty on web users’ experience. As a secondary analysis of a longitudinal online study including 395 participants, this study includes participants’ self-assessed worrying (PSWQ-d) and intolerance of uncertainty (IU-18) as well as evaluation of websites they visited. Structural equation modelling was used to determine the relationship of worrying and intolerance of uncertainty with user experience. While worrying showed only small and with the exception of usability not-significant effects on content and aesthetics, intolerance of uncertainty surprisingly showed small and significant positive relationships with all facets of user experience. In contrast to our initial expectations, participants who worry more do not seem to face strong limitations in finding resources and information on the internet. Further research should instead focus on intolerance of uncertainty as a possible antecedent of positive user experience to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms leading to its positive relation with user experience.