Persuasive system design principles that impact the usability of smartphone applications

Abstract

The study examines the impact of persuasive system design principles (PSD) on the continued use of WhatsApp users. A cross-sectional survey was employed to collect data from 488 participants living in Germany, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, and Malaysia, representing varying cultural backgrounds. This study employed one-way ANOVA, multiple regression analysis, and Tukey’s HSD test for analyzing the data. Findings indicate that PSD with varying effects of its elements is a factor influencing customer loyalty regardless of cultural effects. This suggests that businesses can influence consumers globally by going beyond specific designs for local cultures and by adopting PSD principles within their design, hence a lower cost and faster reach to culturally-different markets.