IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-04089291.html

The effect of visual information complexity on urban mobility intention and behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Chambon

    (L3I - Laboratoire Informatique, Image et Interaction - EA 2118 - ULR - La Rochelle Université)

  • Ulysse Soulat

    (NUDD - Usages du Numérique pour le Développement Durable - ULR - La Rochelle Université)

  • Jeanne Lallement

    (NUDD - Usages du Numérique pour le Développement Durable - ULR - La Rochelle Université)

  • Jean-Loup Guillaume

    (L3I - Laboratoire Informatique, Image et Interaction - EA 2118 - ULR - La Rochelle Université)

Abstract

Encouraging soft mobility practices is a central issue for the ecological transition. Green information systems and more specifically self-tracking applications are tools that can be used to raise awareness and changing behavior. Based on the theoretical framework of visual complexity, this paper examines how the level of visual complexity of a mobile application influences users' urban mobility intentions and behaviors. We conducted two experimental studies. The first one investigated how the visual complexity of homepages affects mobility intentions with an application to measure one's carbon footprint in a situational setting. The first result of our research is that moderate information visual complexity positively influences the acceptability of a mobile application as well as mobility intentions. A second experimental research is divided into two parts, firstly, participants responded to our questionnaire, secondly, in a longitudinal approach, 51 subjects used the application over a 3-month period. The conceptual framework was tested using regression analyses. We find that intention to change behavior influences responsible urban mobility behavior. However, our experiment shows that the visual complexity of information does not have a significant influence on behavior. We then propose theoretical implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Chambon & Ulysse Soulat & Jeanne Lallement & Jean-Loup Guillaume, 2023. "The effect of visual information complexity on urban mobility intention and behavior," Post-Print hal-04089291, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04089291
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04089291v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-04089291v1/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mosteller, Jill & Donthu, Naveen & Eroglu, Sevgin, 2014. "The fluent online shopping experience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(11), pages 2486-2493.
    2. Pierre Dubois & Paulo Albuquerque & Olivier Allais & Céline Bonnet & Patrice Bertail & Pierre Combris & Saadi Lahlou & Natalie Rigal & Bernard Ruffieux & Pierre Chandon, 2021. "Effects of front-of-pack labels on the nutritional quality of supermarket food purchases: evidence from a large-scale randomized controlled trial," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 119-138, January.
    3. Wang, Qiuzhen & Ma, Da & Chen, Hanyue & Ye, Xuhong & Xu, Qing, 2020. "Effects of background complexity on consumer visual processing: An eye-tracking study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 270-280.
    4. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    5. Wu, Kewen & Vassileva, Julita & Zhao, Yuxiang & Noorian, Zeinab & Waldner, Wesley & Adaji, Ifeoma, 2016. "Complexity or simplicity? Designing product pictures for advertising in online marketplaces," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 17-27.
    6. Jonathan W. Palmer, 2002. "Web Site Usability, Design, and Performance Metrics," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 13(2), pages 151-167, June.
    7. Pierre Dubois & Paulo Albuquerque & Olivier Allais & Céline Bonnet & Patrice Bertail & Pierre Combris & Saadi Lahlou & Natalie Rigal & Bernard Ruffieux & Pierre Chandon, 2021. "Effects of front-of-pack labels on the nutritional quality of supermarket food purchases: evidence from a large-scale randomized controlled trial," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 119-138, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Qiuzhen & Ma, Da & Chen, Hanyue & Ye, Xuhong & Xu, Qing, 2020. "Effects of background complexity on consumer visual processing: An eye-tracking study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 270-280.
    2. Hallikainen, Heli & Luongo, Milena & Dhir, Amandeep & Laukkanen, Tommi, 2022. "Consequences of personalized product recommendations and price promotions in online grocery shopping," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    3. Stephanie von Hinke, 2022. "Education, Dietary Intakes and Exercise," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 84(1), pages 214-240, February.
    4. Andrews, J. Craig & Netemeyer, Richard & Burton, Scot & Kees, Jeremy, 2021. "What consumers actually know: The role of objective nutrition knowledge in processing stop sign and traffic light front-of-pack nutrition labels," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 140-155.
    5. Tong, Xinjia & Chen, Yuangao & Zhou, Shasha & Yang, Shuiqing, 2022. "How background visual complexity influences purchase intention in live streaming: The mediating role of emotion and the moderating role of gender," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    6. Xiaolin Lin & Mauricio Featherman & Stoney L. Brooks & Nick Hajli, 2019. "Exploring Gender Differences in Online Consumer Purchase Decision Making: An Online Product Presentation Perspective," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 21(5), pages 1187-1201, October.
    7. Camille Cornudet & Marie‐eve Laporte & Fabienne Berger-Remy & Béatrice Parguel & Jean‐loup Richet, 2025. "When Food Scanner Apps Outperform Front‐of‐Pack Nutrition Labels," Post-Print hal-05013772, HAL.
    8. Lan Luo & Koen Pauwels, 2023. "Practice Prize Report: The 2020 and 2022 ISMS Gary Lilien Practice Prize Competition," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(1), pages 6-10, January.
    9. Mengyue Wang & Xin Li & Patrick Y. K. Chau, 2021. "Leveraging Image-Processing Techniques for Empirical Research: Feasibility and Reliability in Online Shopping Context," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 607-626, June.
    10. Yang, Yutao & Lan, Tian, 2024. "Boosting Sports Card Sales: Leveraging Visual Display and Machine Learning in Online Retail," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    11. Li, Sinan & Huang, Xinmin & Sheng, Yunying & Chen, Kai, 2025. "The interactive effect of recommendation subjects and message types on consumers' suboptimal food purchase intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    12. Mihai Țichindelean & Monica Teodora Țichindelean & Iuliana Cetină & Gheorghe Orzan, 2021. "A Comparative Eye Tracking Study of Usability—Towards Sustainable Web Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-31, September.
    13. Arpita Mukherjee & Aashish Chaudhry & Trishali Khanna & Latika Khatwani & Pallavi Verma, 2025. "Towards Vitamin D Kuposhan Mukt Bharat through Food Fortification: The Role of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)," Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) Policy Paper 55, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi, India.
    14. Stijn Maesen & Lien Lamey & Anne ter Braak & Léon Jansen, 2022. "Going healthy: how product characteristics influence the sales impact of front-of-pack health symbols," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 108-130, January.
    15. Ainsworth, Jeremy & Ballantine, Paul W., 2017. "Consumers’ cognitive response to website change," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 56-66.
    16. Gauthier, Caroline & Bally, Frederic, 2025. "Digitalization and power shift in the food market," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    17. Godden, E. & Dens, N. & Coppens, B. & Thornton, L., 2025. "Can we improve the healthiness of online food purchases through the Nutri-Score and site design?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    18. van der Meer, M. & Schruff-Lim, E.M. & Onwezen, M.C. & Fischer, A.R.H., 2025. "“Planting†meat substitutes in the meat shelf: An online and two supermarket field experiments to explore the effect of placing meat substitutes next to meat," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    19. Maier, Erik & Dost, Florian, 2018. "The positive effect of contextual image backgrounds on fluency and liking," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 109-116.
    20. Jiang, Hongyan & Wang, Yaping & Liu, Yeyi, 2025. "A well-visualized effect: How nutritional content–equivalent labels influence healthfulness perceptions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04089291. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.