A frame of user interface design requirements for usability and improved consumer behaviors in social commerce

MASTERS THESIS WITHIN: Informatics NUMBER OF CREDITS: 30

PROGRAMME OF STUDY: Information Architecture and Innovation AUTHOR: Julian Sybella Nansamba

JÖNKÖPING May 2020

A study that looks into

A frame of user interface design requirements for usability and improved consumer

behaviors in social commerce

Master Thesis in Informatics

Title: The impact of user interface usability on consumer behavior in social commerce- Authors: Julian Sybella Nansamba

Tutor: Daniela Mihailescu Date: 2020-05-26

Key terms: User interfaces, Usability, Consumer behavior, Social commerce.

Abstract

User interface usability in social commerce is an important theme today because many businesses are evolving with use of social media in order to easily reach larger markets. The study was based on the fact that online shoppers and their purchase success depend to the great extent they can interact with the interface (usability). Therefore, it is important for companies to attend to the users' online consumer purchase behavior. The purpose of the study is to discuss which interface design requirements can enhance usability that improves consumer behavior in social commerce.

The methodology of social constructionist paradigm, a deductive research approach with investigation from multiple exploratory cases was used. For extension of knowledge about the topic both secondary and primary data with interviews was followed. The findings show that the social commerce companies are still facing some challenges because they still lack some of the suggested requirements which hinders the usability of their interfaces. Moreover, they believe that some requirements are not be as important as others. The companies can use these findings to apply and harmonize this frame of requirements into their user interfaces in order to achieve usability that promotes consumer behaviors since they can now realize that the few requirement they never attend to limits the usability of their websites.

Table of Contents:

2.2 Consumer behavior in social commerce ... 7

2.2.1 Customer journey of the social commerce user. 8 2.3 Usability ... 10

2.4 User interfaces for the social commerce ... 11

2.4.1 Design requirements for quality s-commerce User interface 12 3. Methodology ... 22 3.1 Research Philosophy ... 23 3.2 Research Approach ... 24 3.3 Research Method ... 26 3.4 Research Strategy ... 27 3.5 Case sampling ... 28 3.6 Data collection ... 28 3.7 Data Analysis. ... 31 3.8 Method evaluation ... 32 3.9 Ethical considerations ... 34 4. Empirical findings. ... 36 4.1 Company A ... 36 4.1.1 Social commerce ... 37

4.1.2 Consumer behavior ... 37 4.1.3 Usability ... 38 4.1.4. User interfaces ... 39 4.2 Company B ... 43 4.2.1 Social commerce. ... 43 4.2.2. Consumer behavior ... 44 4.2.3. Usability ... 44 4.2.4 user interfaces ... 46 4.3. Company C ... 51 4.3.1 Social commerce ... 51 4.3.2 Consumer behavior ... 52 4.3.3 Usability ... 53 4.3.4 User interfaces ... 54 5. Analysis ... 59 5.1. Social commerce ... 59 5.2 Consumer behavior ... 60 5.3 Usability ... 61

5. 4 User interfaces635.4.1 Design requirements for quality social commerce user interfaces ... 63

6. Conclusion ... 70

7. Discussion... 72

7.1 Limitations and self-criticism ... 72

7.2 Suggestion for further research ... 73

References. ... 74

LIST OF FIGURES:

Figure 1; Illustrates the SOR model of consumer behavior in social commerce. (Zhang, 2016) pg

99... 8

Figure 2;Illustrates the highlight of the selected steps of the customer journey (https://www.google.com/search?q=social+commerce+customer+journey)... 9

Figure 3. shows the summary steps of the users’ journey of the highlighted part in figure 2 ... 10

Figure 4; shows different sorting categories: (retrieved from Dhgate.com) ... 14

Figure 5;shows page formats interfaces (retrieved from Dhgate.com) ... 16

Figure 6;Shows product catalog (retrieved from Missguided.com) ... 17

Figure 7; Shows simple registration forms. (retrieved from Dhgate.com)... 18

Figure 8; shows the different customer service methods; (retrieved from SHEIN.com and Dhgate.com) ... 21

Figure 9; illustrates inductive research approach ... 25

Figure 10; shows deductive research approach ... 25

Figure 11; Represents company A’s perspective of the relation between the usability attributes 39 Figure 12; Represents company B’s perspective of the relation the usability attributes ... 46

Figure 13; Represents company C’s perspective of the relation between the usability attributes 54 Figure 14; Represents the companies' perspectives in regard to the SOR model of consumer behavior in social commerce. ... 61

Figure 15; Represents the summary of the overall perspective of therelation between the usability attributes by the companies. ... 63

LIST OF TABLES: Table 1: Illustrates the secondary data key word categories used ... 32

Table 2: Illustrates the information about the company and the respondents from which the findings were made. ... 37

Table 3; Illustrating the use of the different social media platforms in the social commerce companies interviewed. ... 61

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1.0 Introduction

In this age of fast-growing digitalization, change is inevitable especially in the way we purchase goods and services. And while this digital transformation emerges, issues of how retailers and other selling companies attempt to explore the boom in the electronic market arise (Lohse and Spiller, 1998). This means that selling companies may have to distinguish between selling through a physical store and an electronic counterpart, as the familiar layout of the physical store becomes a maze of pull-down menus, product indices, and search features (Spann et al., 2012).

Moreover, while social networking users spend 50% more online than people who do not use social networking sites, many are now doing a lot of talking using social networks (Lawrence J, 2011). Also people like to talk about their potential purchases and brands they like through these networks therefore many commerce providers have created social media presence for their e-commerce sites on these social networks for example Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter among others (Ionescu, 2009) hence enhancing social commerce.

The social commerce providers are utilizing “an Internet-based applications build using the technological foundations of Web 2.0, which supports the generation and exchange of User Generated Content (UGC)” (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010) pg254, into their business website. Throughout the overall customer experience of purchasing the product, the user interface becomes one of the important elements that allows the users achieve their goal (Florin, 2001). The s-commerce website interfaces then become the basis of selling and should be designed to streamline the business processes for an organization (Nielson J,1990), and provide interface and screen designs that encourage efficient comprehension and execution, create screen icons and graphics that make display easier and more comfortable to use (Borjaski, 1994). Social-commerce sites allow performance of daily business activities by interacting through menu-driven user-interface components such as tool bars, and dialogue windows through the interfaces (Zhang, Chen & Ying, 2006). In addition, these interfaces must catch the attention of a customer as similar to which they would have got from a customer service person at the physical store (Marcus,1993). Therefore, for any successful s-commerce, online shopping will depend on the

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great extent upon the usage of the interface and how people interact with the computer (Lohse and Spiller, 1998). However, while this great idea has been identified by many companies, they are still facing challenges about the friendliness and warmness (usability) involved with usage and intractability of their interfaces (Arnold Lund, 2001).

1.1 Research problem

Social commerce is increasingly taking up a great share in the consumer's market today. Undoubtedly, companies have managed to reach multitudes of these consumers on marketing their products and services through social media and other social networks. And while many of the s-commerce are making efforts to increase their profits through sales via their social media collaborations, many of them are not paying enough attention to the users' online consumer purchase behavior through their site interfaces. Moreover, these companies are making large investments in the implementation of business information systems with the expectation of productivity gains, competitiveness enhancement, and the reduction of market, administrative and operational costs (Younghwa Lee and Kenneth, 2006). Even after this, they are still experiencing problems such as incomplete purchases at the website for example, there are still customers that are categorized as "dummy customers". Dummy customers means those customers that have visited and are aware of these social commerce websites, and are probably interested in the products and services of these companies, but give up with purchasing. This usually is due to the unusable user interface of these websites which make their purchase journeys difficult (Nielsen J, 1994).

Furthermore, while companies and designers need to fulfill the evolving requirements from the s-commerce world, these applications have gradually evolved in providing complex functional features in the user interfaces (Zhang, Chen &Ying, 2006). However, these rich features are not always obvious for the users to navigate and interact in the interfaces (UI). As a result, the consumers usually get overwhelmed by the enormous functionality available as they struggle in deciding where to start and where to go next after a result from a feature within the interfaces. Thus, the overall idea to achieving their end goal is hindered with in the business processes.

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1.2 Research purpose.

User interfaces have revolved from the past years and the attitude towards them are changing within the growing technology (Tidwell,2005). While many companies have embraced the digital and online way of selling their products and services, the user interfaces of their social commerce systems nowadays become important. This is because a well-designed user interface allows users to complete their everyday tasks in a great extent, (Kim, 1998) which as well promotes business success. Moreover, the new product development requires an enticing user interface to attract customers to stay on the application/ website, explore and successfully make their purchases(Farhan Saeed, 2018). In addition, while the evolving consumer behaviors with the use of interfaces takes place, there is no doubt that social commerce user interfaces designers need to add these design features to the websites in order to evolve as well (Tidwell,2005). Furthermore, during the social commerce processes, there are such cases when the users are involved with intermediaries that are separated by distance or perhaps time, such interfaces become even more important (Bates, 1989).

Thus, existing literature has demonstrated and discussed how a good s-commerce interface can increase consumer behavior. However, there is still limited information regarding what "good" really means and what kind of interfaces bridge the gap of incomplete purchases for the so-called dummy customers. Therefore, this research focuses on looking into which user interface requirements can enhance usability and improve consumer behavior of achieving purchasing in s-commerce. For example, the importance that users who visit the websites to buy products can apply the interface easily and that the technical parts do not distract their attention from their work.

To extend knowledge in this matter, this thesis will explore the attributes of usability that promote consumer behavior in social commerce websites and a frame of user interface requirements that support the usability of the social commerce interfaces. The research will provide insights from different social commerce cases plus the different perception from the social commerce user interface designers.

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1.3Research Question.

1.What attributes of user interface usability affect consumer behaviors in social commerce? 2.Which design requirements are required to promote usability and consumer behavior in social commerce?

1.4Delimitation

Regarding interfaces (the interaction face between the user and a computer system) such as apps, websites, operating systems, among others, this research will mainly focus on s-commerce website interfaces.

In regard to consumer behavior, the research will focus on user's behaviors from when the user get aware of the company products/ service to when they decide to purchase it. This is further elaborated in the customer journey part in the literature.

Collection of data will be focused on designers of the s-commerce sites because they are considered to have experienced knowledge about the topic and can provide quality information about the topic within the given period of time for this research. Though it would have been nice to capture data from the users' perspective too.

In addition, a research strategy of multiple case studies will be carried out on some social commerce companies to achieve more data within the limited time of this research.

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1.5Definitions

User Interfaces (UI): This is the features of a computer system that allows the user to interact

with it. In business terms, user interfaces can be described as the representation of communication with the user on behalf of a business system and can be displayed in terms of pictures, sound, color, and text. (Ravi Chandra,2008).

Social commerce: This is the use of social media in e-commerce. Social commerce encourages

consumers to participate actively in the buying and selling of products and services in online marketplaces and communities, through interactive and collaborative online shopping experience (Zhao Huang,2017)

Consumer behavior: These are the online shoppers' habits, for example what online and offline

distractions are competing for their attention, and what factors mostly influence them to embrace, or abandon, their online shopping experience (Jack Loechner, 2018)

Usability: This can be described as the ease of use of a system. When prospective customers

start exploring a web site, the ease and the efficiency with which they can access relevant information can affect how much they feel in control of the site (Florian, 2001)

Web 2.0: This is a second generation of internet, created to state the difference between

traditional static Web sites and interactive knowledge creation platforms. Here users are supposed to extract from and contribute to the knowledge databases simultaneously through active participation from multiple sources (e.g. other individual users, data and services) (O'reilly, 2007).

User Generated Content (UGC): Contents that are publicly available over the Internet, which

reflects a certain amount of creative effort and created outside professional routines and practices. (Christodoulides, 2012)

Dummy customers: Customers are who redundant users of the social commerce website. They

are aware and part of the s-commerce systems but do not usually or not even at all buy the products due to lack of usability of the user interfaces.

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2.0 Theoretical framework 2.1 Social commerce

Social commerce is believed to be the collaborative network for online sellers (Stephen and Toubia, 2009). It is also conceptualized as the selling with social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube (Marsden and Chaney, 2012). Social commerce is also perceived as a subset of e-commerce, for example Dennison et al., (2009) adopted a definition provided by IBM and explained it as the marriage of e-commerce and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Kem, et al., (2016) on the other hand believes that social commerce can be perceived as a broader approach to e-commerce and therefore identified two major types of social-commerce: 1.Social networking sites that incorporate commercial features to allow transactions and advertisements and; 2. Traditional e-commerce websites that add social tools to facilitate social interactions and sharing. Also social commerce can be described as the use of social media tools and Web 2.0 technologies in e-commerce (Huang & Benyoucef, 2012). Social commerce is considerably changing the way internet users are communicating and sharing data today, and this is due to the impact of social networks (Griffith, 2011). Moreover, the emergency of social commerce has brought some substantial changes that affect both the

businesses and the consumers. (Kem, et a, 2016).Researchers still believe there is more need for attention to the understanding of social commerce because it contains significant satisfaction derived from the shopping behavior of users that are involved in the transactions with friends to friends (Griffith, 2011). In addition, one of the special characteristics of social commerce is that interactions are community based and not one-to-one (Stephen & Toubia, 2009). These

phenomena are shaping new interface design models with features that are more customer oriented in order to add value to the customer hence improving marketing strategy for the selling companies.

The adoption of these features and components can affect the understanding of social commerce context on the social shopping behavior of vendors and consumers, therefore there is need to provide an adoption framework. In regards to this, M. Hajli, (2015) came up with a Social Commerce Adoption Model (SCAM) with six predictors of s-commerce to address the adoption of s-commerce. The six predictors in the models are Recommendations and referrals, Forums

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and communities, Ratings and reviews, Trust of the social commerce site, Perceived usefulness and lastly Intention to buy. However, the success of these predictors is completely governed by how consumers behave with the website since several decisions need to be undertaken by the consumer in order to accomplish their goal with s-commerce (Kem, et a, 2016)

2.2 Consumer behavior in social commerce

Different studies have adopted some theories such as the motivation theory, technology acceptance theory model, culture related theories, theories of reasoned action and planned behavior in relation to consumer behavior in s-commerce. (Kem, et al, 2016). Other studies emphasize on consumer motives, benefits, and values such as functional, emotional, self-oriented, social and relational values while interacting with the brand (Davis, et al, 2014). In addition, Kem and Benyouce, (2016) identify several factors for studying consumer behavior in social commerce by proposing an integrative framework stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model and the five-stage consumer decision making process.

The SOR model explains individual behaviors as learned responses to external stimuli (Zheng, et al, 2015). According to the SOR model, environmental performances act as external stimuli, which can affect individuals' internal cognitions and emotions (Kem, et a, 2016). These internal factors will then drive them to perform behaviors forming the responses. Hence this model can enable the understanding of consumer's behaviors on s-commerce sites.

Furthermore, the Five-stage consumer decision-making process explains five activities of response for the consumers' decision-making process: need recognition, search, evaluation, purchase and post purchase (Engel, Kollat & Blackwell, 1973). The need recognition refers to the consumer's need or awareness of certain products: The search refers to the consumer's searching behavior for making choices: the evaluation is the consumer's evaluate alternative products or shopping platforms to choose the best option: The purchase refers to the consumer's purchase behavior and : the post-purchase refers to the consumer's post-purchase activities such as recommending products to others (Kem, et a, 2016). As explained, the SOR model and the five-stage consumer decision making process play a potential role on explaining consumer behavior on social commerce site and below is the representation of the framework for consumer behavior in social commerce.

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Figure 1; Illustrates the SOR model of consumer behavior in social commerce. (Zhang, 2016) pg 99

In conclusion, regarding consumer behavior in social commerce, satisfied consumers may spend longer on a website or may revisit the website later and may recommend the website to others (Zhang & Dran, 2001). It is crucial to determine what makes a user satisfied with the s-commerce, therefore s-commerce evaluators need to first of all learn who their users are and the key goals of those users, plus the steps the users are going to take to use that site.

2.2.1 Customer journey of the social commerce user.

A customer journey is a complete sum of experiences that consumers go through when interacting with a company or brand (Audra Sorman, 2019).As for consumer behavior in this research, it is important to mention that the behavior of the user is considered from when they get aware of the brand and open the website in order to purchase from it. According to Stuart Hogg,(2018)the journey people take to become loyal customers would be a straight shot down a motor way: buy the product: use the product and repeat the cycle. But in reality, this journey is more like a sightseeing tour with stops, exploration and discussions along the way (Stuart Hogg, 2018). Therefore, the moments when you need to convince your customer to pick your brand and stick with it instead of switching to a competitor may lie in the power of your interface.

Furthermore Stuart Hogg, (2018) identifies five things that social commerce can look into to enhance the journey of their customers:

1. Find the sweet spots where the goals of the customer and yours aligns 2. Identify all of the communication touch points in your consumer's journey 3. Recognize the pain points and moments of delight

9 4. Experience the customer's journey yourself 5. Visualize the journey map

In doing so, the customer journey can be a guide in improving the usability of the product for the users.

For this research, I will concentrate on the consumer journey from when the user gets aware of the website to when they decide to purchase the product. The journey of a customer in social commerce involves five different steps which are awareness, consideration, purchase, retention, and advocacy. Below is the figure showing these various steps.

Figure 2;Illustrates the highlight of the selected steps of the customer journey (https://www.google.com/search?q=social+commerce+customer+journey)

From the figure above, the highlighted part indicates the areas that this research concentrated upon, which are awareness, consideration, and purchase.

 Awareness is the point where the consumers/shoppers see the social add, blogs, emails, word of mouth, reviews and then move to the website interface where they can access the home pages, products and categories that they may be interested in.

 Consideration is the point when the users have accepted the website and decide and continue to select several items to their cart for future purchase.

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Figure 3. shows the summary steps of the users’ journey of the highlighted part in figure 2

2.3 Usability

Usability can be referred to as how easy it is for users to learn a system, how efficient they can be after being learned and how enjoyable it is to use it (J. Nielsen, 1994). Usability can also be defined as the capacity or a software product to be understood, learned, operated, and attractive to users (Fernandez et al., 2011). In addition, usability can be characterized as a global feature of a system that is acceptable by the end users and satisfies the needs and the requirements of the user (Nielsen & Mack ,1994). Usability can be decomposed into five attributes:

 Learnability, which is the ease of learning the functionality and the behavior of the system

 Efficiency, which is the level of attainable productivity, once the user has learned the system

 Memorability which is the ease of remembering the system functionality after a period of non-use

 Low error rate which the capability of the system to support users in making less errors during the use of the system and

 User’s satisfaction which is the measure in which the users like the system (Nielsen, J, 1994).

In addition to the five attributes, Arnold M. Lund, (2001) agrees with Nielsen J, (1994) that usable system are ones that contains an acceptable level of errors or an acceptable speed of accomplishing a standard task. Hassanein& Head, (2007) and Mack & Sharples, (2009) agree that usability is an important factor of the overall quality of social commerce design and a very

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important requirement of product design because it is the utmost importance to consumers in the decision to purchase a product. Furthermore, usability is viewed as one of those characteristics of software quality such as the capability of a system to be understood, learned, used and attractive to the user (Costabile M, 2001). Luna-Nevarez and Hyman (2012) described the following six usability attributes of website design: content quality, visual and presentation style, navigation, textual information, advertising and social media aids. For too long, many UI designers have been designing systems that require a lot of usage effort by the users, which results into technology un-acceptance (Costabile M, 2001). This affects the users overall purchase behavior and usability for the social commerce interfaces.

To improve usability, nowadays website design is becoming a cooperative activity, which involves a usability group, end users, and a development team (Madsen. K, 1999).Costabile M, (2001) argues that the reason why many computer-based systems are so hard to use is that emphasis and focus during the development of the product has been put on the system rather than people who will be the ultimate end-user. Moreover, many companies have come to realize that direct interaction between end users and developers can promote great usability, so end users are more actively involved in the early development process and contributing to design, rather than acting as evaluators (Madsen. K, 1999). Therefore, to implement interfaces that work for the user's needs and abilities, designers need to adopt the user-centered design approach where users focus on the users and their needs in each phase of design.

2.4 User interfaces for the social commerce

A user interface in s-commerce is the asynchronous interaction between the seller and the buyer (José, Peiro & Patrick, 1994). User interfaces are also defined as the first impression of the social commerce websites where interactions and commercial activities are delivered through (Liang and Turban, 2011). User interfaces play a role in walks of life of s-commerce users such as a simple search of the website, or in distance communication between hearing and impaired people (Kim, J. & J.Y. Moon (1998).

A good user interface design is one that results when designers understand people as well as the evolving technology (Costabile M, 2001). Moreover the UX designers need to understand who are the audience users of their product, their personal characteristics, physical capabilities, their

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goals and the task they need to accomplish and the circumstances under which they work (Liang and Turban, 2011). Furthermore, a well-designed user interface of an s-commerce website has a positive effect on consumers, inciting them to use a website and purchase online (Fan and Tsai, 2010). Many users experience frustrations and anxiety with these websites; therefore, it is important that the designers provide user interfaces that support a warm and friendly interaction with users (Costabile M, 2001).

In order to implement quality s-commerce interfaces, there is a fast accumulating body of knowledge that is concerned with user interface design in order to avoid repetition of bad design for example it has been suggested that designers need to integrate UI design methods and techniques such as interface testing and quality control procedures to those that are already tested (Costabile M, 2001)..

2.4.1 Design requirements for quality s-commerce User interface

Designing of s-commerce websites is very challenging, because the sites must accommodate nearly all users, including a significant amount of user interactivity and still be easy to use (Tullis, Tranquada, and Siegel 2011). Factors that come into play are the architecture of the information, the familiarity of website metaphors and the transparency of terminology. In this case any feature that guides users through the shopping process can also facilitate the site usability and interaction (Florian,2001)

According to Straub and Watson (2001), it is vital to evaluate the website quality properties and understand what the customers would need from a website. In the context of social commerce websites, Kim and Lennon (2013) have addressed website quality from three dimensions which are: system, information, and service.

 System quality: which is the extent to which the client thinks the website is easy, reliable, accessible, and adaptable and the interface interaction is consistent (Kirakowski, Claridge, & Whitehand, 1998). Characteristics such as lack of responsiveness, usefulness, and suitability discourages the customer from utilizing s-commerce website hence declining the sales and demand.

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 Service quality: Service quality measures reactive, cooperative, and efficiency aspects of the website (Palmer 2002). Service quality indicates the overall customer assessments and judgments about the service provided by the site (Palmer 2002).

 Information quality: This is the degree of perceived value about the output provided from the website (Rai, Lang, and Welker, 2002). The information contained in the website has to be accurate, relevant, personalized, formatted and easy to understand to encourage customer’s initial purchase intention

In relation to these dimensions, the frame of requirements for a quality s-commerce website interface should focus on achieving design that encourage purchases. Najjar, L, (2000) recognized and addressed the major requirements needed for quality s-commerce interface design as, navigation, page format, registration, catalog, personalization, checkout and customer service

Navigation

Navigation is the ability of users to move through your site. Design navigation that is simple intuitive and obvious makes it easy for users to move through the site (Najjar L, 2011). Navigation control should be put in the same location on each page and should tell the users where they are, how they got there and where else they can go (Fleming, 1998). Rogers and Chaparro, (2003) also argues that s-commerce site interface should provide" breadcrumb" navigation, for example small, hyperlinked pages at the top of each page usually above the title of the current page. In addition, Grimm,(1999) also believes that these breadcrumbs navigation control allow users to easily retrace their steps, for example (Home>Women's

clothes>Dresses>Party dresses).

Design the navigation that allows the user to browse any product in at least five clicks or fewer (Tracy 2000). This can be done through categorization by names because names serve as a global navigation control (Najjar L, 2011). Moreover, it is much better to provide more category names at each level than to provide more levels to click through. Furthermore, allow users to filter products in categories by useful measures such as price ranges, brands, discounted products, and customer ratings. For example(SHEIN.com) allows users to filter products by price ranges,

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ratings, color, among others. Lastly, the s-commerce sites should provide specific browse functions to meet user needs. For example,(missguided.com) lists products by seasons and occasions.

Search is also an extremely relevant element during navigation, but unfortunately, many social commerce sites do not design, maintain, or even evaluate their search functions (Hagen,

Manning, and Paul 2000). Nielsen and Tahir, (2001) in their study also found that 36% of users spend a lot of time looking for where to find the search functions on 25 s-commerce sites. To improve this function, designers should use meta tag tools, thesauruses, alternate spellings, and database search engines (Najjar L, 2011). For example, the advanced search function on (DHgate .com) allows users to enter a variety of information (e.g., title, sizes) . Also display the search field at a drop-down menu that makes it easier for users to focus on one area of the site. In addition display the "searched-for" keywords to allow users to perform another search, refine the search results, and sort the search results using helpful product attributes such as price range (e.g., SHEIN.com), style, size, and customer review rating.

Figure 4; shows different sorting categories: (retrieved from Dhgate.com)

Page format

Page formats play an important part on the quality of the company's website user interface. To make it easier for users to interact with social commerce websites, format the pages in a way that that the user interface elements are in familiar locations (Bernard 2001). This is because the most website users are familiar to using several websites for which seem to look familiar with each other, for example put the return-to-Home hyperlink to the top, left corner. In addition to use the company's logo as the hyper link to make it serve as a double duty as a branding element

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page by putting it on the right side or cross the bottom of each product page (Najjar L, 2011). Also include promotions for products such as: those that were highly rated by your customer and will appeal to most of your visitor-users and show the promotional product names, images, very short descriptions, and prices (Pastore 1999).

Regarding shopping carts, users need to know what is in their cart, put a shopping cart summary on each page. In the short summary, show a short hyper linked product name for each item, the quantity of each item, the price, and the cost subtotal (Chaparro 2001; Pastore 1999; Ragus 2000a). This prevents the users from moving back and forth the interface which may distract their attention in the process. Also include a link to the complete shopping cart, the wish list and the checkout.

Registration is one of the most annoying elements of a page format if it is poorly interfaced. To easily accommodate registered users, designers need to include the sign-in entry fields and hyperlinks on every home page (Najjar L, 2011) Display the user's name (e.g., "Kevin Dickson") near the top of the home page so that the registered user knows they are recognized and are receiving member benefits such as express check out (Najjar L, 2011) The Contact us hyperlink should be placed on every page perhaps at the bottom.. Furthermore, a good way to attract new users is to put on each product page a link to a simple referral form in which users need to enter only sender and receiver names and e-mail addresses (e.g., Julian.com’s “E-mail to a friend”) (Reichheld and Schefter 2000). In addition, information privacy being a critical issue for users, provide links to your privacy and security policies at the bottom of every page, as well as show the links clearly where the users are entering private information in the content area of the registration and check out pages (Stanley, McCarthy, and Sharrard 2000).

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Figure 5;shows page formats interfaces (retrieved from Dhgate.com)

Catalog

The catalog should make it easier for users to see products (Najjar L, 2011). In addition, avoid requiring users to register first in order to see a product catalog, for example (DHgate.com) allows the user to see their product catalog and availability even without registering on the website. Furthermore in regards to availability, show only products that are in stock to reduce user frustration and allow users to see the availability and price of products immediately before they are able to add it in the shopping cart (Najjar L, 2011). For example (SHEIN.com) allows you to see availability and prices of products before even adding it in the shopping cart. Also sort the product catalogs in lists of style, size, color by using filtering tools. This allows users to narrow down a long list of products while navigating through the site (Nielsen and Tahir 2001) Freedman,(2008a) also argues that users spend at least 6 minutes or more on helpful page interfaces, therefore it is important to allow users to zoom in and move the image to see the product details. To facilitate these use tabs below the product image, display textual product summary, specifications, and customer reviews and ratings. Also provide engaging how-to videos, that are ideally associated with specific products (Najjar L, 2011). For example (AliExpress.com) shows videos of actual appearance and usage of products.

For easy accessibility of product page by the user, display graphical “Add to shopping cart” and “Check out” buttons with larger fonts and brighter colors (Najjar L, 2011). In addition, update

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the cart summary at the top of the page to provide confirmation to the user (such as on Gap.com) with a message like “You successfully put the product into your shopping cart.”. Also allow users who may want to purchase later a button that moves the product into the member's wish list (Najjar L, 2011). Furthermore, endeavor to show the original and current price of the product if the product is on sale because shoppers love a bargain (Nielsen, 2007)

Figure 6;Shows product catalog (retrieved from Missguided.com) Registration

Registration determines a lot whether users will continue in the process or not. The simpler the registration process, the more likely will users register and buy (Agrawal, Arjona, and Lemmens, 2001). (Sacharow and Mooradian, 1999) also argues that users tend not to read or complete the registration page and almost half of the users leave without succeeding their registration page (Najjar L, 2011). This leaves the s-commerce companies with no information to personalize for their customers. In addition, give permission to registered users to send e-mail notifications for example on sales and new products (Charron et al. 1998) and to leave a cookie “Remember me when I return”. In order to reduce the number of actions made, make it easier for users to

remember their sign-in names or only require them to enter their email addresses and a password. Goldwyn, (2010) argues that the system should allow unregistered users enter the shipping and billing information during checkout, after which you can inform the users the benefits of

registration. (For example, ASOS.com) allows users to checkout before registration. Also unregistered users can be asked to register by utilizing the information they just entered during

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checkout, and to provide only a password (Nielsen 2007). In order to reduce this, make it easier for users to remember their sign-in names or only require them to enter their email addresses and a password. As for the privacy and security policies, provide a link at registration to make users aware of their rights to privacy and security of their information. Furthermore, give users control of their personal information by allowing editing the registration information and to unregister. Regarding purchase card information, never show the entire credit card number; show only *s and the last four digits for security reasons (Najjar L, 2011).

Figure 7; Shows simple registration forms. (retrieved from Dhgate.com)

Personalization

Personalization is a powerful element for social commerce sites, and it can provide a more compelling user experience, reduce the number of choices to a subset that is likely to interest the user (Grau, 2009). It is based on the user's registration information, purchase history and

browsing history. In order to implement these, display the user's name at the top of the page, personalize the suggested product on the home page, and list the recent mostly viewed products (Freedman, 2008a). For example (SHEIN.com) display the recently viewed items and always displays the user's profile at the top of the page to show their current presence.

For effectiveness and less annoying for users, send notifications for only products that interest the user and allow them to forward the promotional e-mail to a friend or their social network (eMarketer, 2009b). For example (Pinterest.com) sends notifications on products that interest the user but also allows them to share it with friends via other social networks. Moreover, since these are social commerce sites, allow users to be part of a community to improve user loyalty, user

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time on the site, and site revenue (Najjar L, 2011), by offering tailored information, tools and message boards.

Checkout

Checkout is one of the reasons why 40% of users failed to complete an online order (Rehman 2000). As mentioned earlier registration is one of the issues that hinders users at checkout as they require completing long forms (Sacharow and Mooradian 1999). In order to reduce such issues, designers should try to put all the checkout fields on a single page to avoid user confusion. It is also very important for users to know all the information they need before acting. In other words, users like to know their shipping cost, quantity of product, price of the product, as well as be able to add, remove and reduce the number products from the cart with ease before checkout (Najjar L, 2011),

Regarding delivery and shipping information, allow users to enter a zip code and provide a drop-down menu of shipping choices (such as DHL, UPS, Postnord) and delivery speeds (such as 5-12 business days). In addition, the shipping costs of these choices need to be clearly provided to the user. Regarding promotions, free shipping offers, and coupon codes among others, these should be easily usable to encourage users to increase their order sizes and to complete their purchases (Najjar L, 2011). Save the registered user's shopping cart content for at least 90 days in case they leave the page without complete purchase (For example Amazon.com) keeps their users' cart for a longer time. In order to motivate users on their cart, remind them by sending an email alert, this encourages the users to purchase the product they left in the cart.

Regarding payment, provide easy and safe and reliable ways to pay (such as credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, Klarna.,). In addition, for credit cards that require a security code, display a link to a popup window that explains via text and images where to find the security code on different cards order (Rehman 2000). Also provide a read only purchase summary and in case users need to change anything, allow them to be able to edit that information before completion (Najjar L, 2011).

Privacy and security is key at checkout, and 20% of users said they stopped at checkout because they felt the site was insecure (Hill 2001). Moreover, many users have been scammed due to such insecurity issues. Provide site's security and privacy certified by consumer groups (such as

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TRUSTe or BBBOnLine) plus show their logos on the checkout page (Rehman 2000). In addition, add links that have information about consumer protection features such as return policy, security protection, delivery guarantees, and customer service email response time guarantees (Agrawal, Arjona, and Lemmens 2001; Rhodes 1998)

Figure 8; shows checkout summary with payment information:( retrieved from SHEIN.com) Customer service

The best and outstanding customer service for a s-commerce website is one that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in real time (Agrawal, Arjona, and Lemmens 2001) with different ways such as live chats, toll-free contact calls, FAQs (questions and answers to frequently asked questions) on topics such as checkout, privacy, security, and returns(eMarketer 2009a).. For example (DHgate.com) provides 27/7 customer service that gives live chat, FAQ and contact us telephone contacts for call options.

Live chart is currently dominating the customer service sector because it is an easy, cheaper and clearer way to accessing and understanding information. Users also prefer live chat to customer

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service for simpler questions on topics such as order status or shipping choices (eMarketer 2009a).

Return policy also determine whether users will continuously use a social commerce or not. Return of online products should be as easy as possible. and should provide a pre-printed shipping label for the user to mail online purchases to the store (Najjar L, 2011). In addition s-commerce should also provide free shipping for returns 365 days from the purchase free shipping on the next order, choice of shipper, and the ability to print out a return shipping label to use on the original shipping box (Najjar L, 2011)..

Figure 9; shows the different customer service methods; (retrieved from SHEIN.com and

Dhgate.com)

In conclusion, this theoretical framework has discussed different aspects in relation to the research topic such as social commerce, consumer behaviors in social commerce with accompaniment of a suggested model of SOR (Stimulus, Organism Response) that describes how users behave with user interfaces in social commerce. The customer journey of the social commerce users that highlighted the journey of users that this research will focus on which is from the point of awareness of the brand to the point of purchase

The usability of interfaces with attributessuch as learnability, memorability, efficiency, low error rate and user satisfaction have been discussed in detail and how each of them is important for a quality user interface. Lastly, a frame of requirement for a quality socialcommerce user interface was discussedsuch as navigation, page formats, catalogs, registration, personalization, checkout, and customer service.

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I have decided to take with me theaspects ofsocial commerce, consumer behavior, usability and user interface requirements in the next part of the thesis except the consumer journey aspect which was introduced to further explain about consumer behavior that this thesis will focus on.

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3. Methodology

In this chapter, I will discuss about the underlying motivation and selection for the research philosophy, research approach, research strategy and research method. Followed by an outline of data collection techniques and analysis procedure for the empirical findings, at the end, method evaluation and research ethics will be presented.

3.1 Research Philosophy

Research philosophy is the idea that there are different views of the world and the process that operate within it. Burrel and Morgan, (1979) stress that developing a philosophical perspective requires the researcher to make several core assumptions concerning two concepts: The nature of reality and society "Ontology" and the nature of science "Epistemology". A research philosophy is also a vital aspect of the research process as it opens the researcher's mind to other possibilities, which can lead to enrichment of their skills and well as their confidence in using the appropriate methodology (Brannick and Roche, 1997).

Ontology is concerned with "what is" a study about the nature of reality or what could be known as the world (Snape & Spencer, 2003). It is also described as the branch of philosophy that discusses the being and existence (Burrel and Morgan, 1979). Ontology entails that reality exists within our consciousness and only through experience. In this regard, there are two ontological perspectives which are critical realism and relativism theory. Critical realism believes that there is a world that exists independent of the human mind but cannot be accessed in its entirety, rather in partial fragments (Letourneau & Allen, 2006). Relativist ontology is the belief that reality is a finite subjective experience (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005) and nothing exists outside of our thoughts. Epistemology on the other hand is about how one makes meaningful sense of our world.(Annells, 1996) and the study of knowledge, “a way of understanding and explaining how I know what I know” (Crotty, 1998). Epistemology believes that the world exists independently of awareness and does not necessitate that meaning exists in the same way. (Annells, 1996). Epistemology is based on two stances of subjectivism and objectivism. Subjectivism is the belief that knowledge is always filtered through the lenses of language, gender, social class, race (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). Objectivism is the belief that truth and meaning reside within an object and is independent of human subjectivity (Crotty, 1998).

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In order to ensure a strong research design, a research paradigm that is congruent with the researcher's beliefs must be chosen: For example, Postpositivism, Interpretive, and constructionist(Mills, Bonner, & Francis, 2006). Postpositivism is conceptualized as having an objectivist epistemology and critical realist ontology (Annells, 1997). Interpretivist is conceptualized as having a relativist ontology with a subjectivist epistemology (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). Constructionist is conceptualized as having ontological critical realism with epistemological subjectivism. In this case, meaning is created through an interaction of the interpreter and the interpreted (Crotty, 1998)

Therefore, in this research, I decide to use the social constructionist paradigm through consideration that social sciences are constructed by accumulating people's understanding of the topic of knowledge. Furthermore, it will allow me to generalize certain aspects of study. However, this technique has certain drawbacks, such as inaccessibility of certain information despite gathering data from multiple sources and lacking in accepting cultural differences.

3.2 Research Approach

There are basically three types of research approach; inductive, deductive, and abductive for which one will choose to undertake depending on the relevance of the hypothesis they would have come up with (Ritchie et al, 2013).

Inductive approach is concerned with generation of new theory emerging from the data. (Debora Gabriel, 2013). It is a logical process in which multiple premises found to be true most of the time are combined to obtain a specific conclusion or evidence for the truth of a conclusion (Sauce, 2017). The advantages of this approach is that it provides a great place to start a new lesson or unit and it seeks to establish what you already know, or what you think and know about the topic. (Dell’Olio& Donk, 2007). However, some of its drawbacks is that it is not entire suitable for explanation of new concepts or ideas. It is more applicable to concepts that are abstract as compared to those that are more concrete. Below is a proposed model for inductive research

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Figure 10; illustrates inductive research approach

A deductive approach is concerned with testing theories and usually starts at that point (Debora Gabriel, 2013). Here researchers move from a more general level to a more specific one. This approach utilizes a lot of arguments in order to derive sufficient reasoning for a particular fact and these arguments are based on definite law, rules and regulations(Taylor et al., 2002). The researcher studies what others have done, reads existing theories of whatever phenomenon he or she is studying, and then tests hypotheses that emerge from those theories. Below are steps undertaken in deductive research approach: theorize/hypothesize, analysis and confirmation of hypothesis. However, the deductive approach is criticized for the lack of clarity in terms of how to select theory to be tested via formulating hypotheses.

Figure 11; shows deductive research approach

Abductive approach is the systemized creativity of intuition in the search to develop new knowledge. Here, instead of adhering to a logical process, its developments in science are often gained through an intuitive leap that comes forth, and which can be called abductive reasoning (Taylor et al., 2002). The abductive approach starts with 'surprising facts' which may emerge when the researcher encounters with an empirical phenomenon that cannot be explained by the existing range of theories (Creswell and Clark, 2007). In addition, researchers seek to choose the ‘best’ explanation among many alternatives in order to explain 'surprising facts' identified at the start of the research process

In this research, I decided to undertake the deductive approach, because it will allow me to acquire already existing knowledge from the existing literature and then acquire the perceptions of designers regarding user interface design requirements. It will also allow the reasoning and

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confirmation of already existing information about the user interfaces of different s-commerce firms. Therefore, I believe that the deductive technique best suites conducting this study

3.3 Research Method

There are two ways of conducting a research in regard to research methods which are qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative research comprises of methods such as: logic, ethnography, discourse analysis, case study, open-ended interviews, participant observation, grounded theory, focus groups, historical research among others. (Cibangu, 2012). Joop & Henny, (2005) argue that qualitative research examines how people learn about and make sense of themselves and how they structure and give meaning to their daily life. This means that the researcher gains further understanding by looking at how others make sense of their experience.

Quantitative research methods is on the other hand based on numeric figured of measurable data and can be processed in a systematic way though investigations of phenomena and their relations (Leedy, 1993).. Here information is collected from existing and potential customers using sampling method, and sending out online-surveys, online polls, questionnaires etc. Also, qualitative data guides the researcher to think about the cause and effect, use of measurements and observations, as well as a test of theories (Creswell , 2003), Furthermore it uses strategies of inquiry such a experiments and surveys, and gathers information on predetermined instruments that yields numerical data.

In this study, I will utilize qualitative research method that will be based on interpretive philosophy and making sense of socially constructed meanings about this topic (field of interest) (Saunders, et al., 2012) It will also enable a detailed understanding of a process or experience related to the topic, which will be provided by UI experts (designers), and information will be available in non-numeric format (e.g., text or visual) form. Thus, this method will enable to access and understand and examine which user interface elements influence usability and purchases of customers in s-commerce companies. Moreover, the larger aim is to gain deeper knowledge of user interface usability and to develop a theoretically and empirically grounded framework of design requirements for usable interfaces.

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3.4Research Strategy

A research strategy refers to how the researcher propose to answer the research questions set and how you will implement the methodology. It is based on the main components of the research project which is the research topic and focus (Easterby-Smith, 2015). The mainly used research strategies are case studies and action- oriented research. But according to Easterby-Smith, (2015), it is more likely to use case studies.

Case study focuses on in-depth investigation in a single case or a small number of cases. Case studies allow researchers to learn about the state of the art and generate theories from practice, understand the nature and complexity of the processes taking place and is an appropriate way to research an area in which few previous studies have been carried out. (Benbasat , David & Melissa, 1987).

According to Yin (1994) there are three types of case study: exploratory, descriptive and

explanatory case study. The exploratory case study seeks to explore any phenomenon in the data which serves as a point of interest to the researcher. The descriptive case study seeks to describe the natural phenomena which occur within the data in question, focuses on "what' or "why" without including information about "where", "when" and "who". The explanatory case studies examine the data closely both at a surface and at an in-depth level in order to explain the phenomena in the data.

Therefore in this research, I will utilize the exploratory multiple case study as it will allow investigation of natural phenomena without any imposed control on the circumstances and to have insights on the matter in practical terms (Yin, 2017). In addition, the case study is chosen as an underlying research strategy because the study of User Interface usability in Social commerce is under a constant changing environment and also because as a researcher, it is not possible to control the consumer behavior of UI users but rather improve it. Furthermore, it will allow exploration of differences within each case in order to find general similarities occurred. Moreover, multiple case study will support the research time frame, which is about doing the observation on multiple variables at the same period (cross sectional), instead the same variable over long period of time (longitudinal).

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3.5 Case sampling

A sample is a portion of a population or universe (Tailor, 2005). Population does not necessarily mean a number of people (Walliman, N. 2011) but a total quantity of the things or cases which are the subject of the research. Unlike in quantitative studies where the ideal sampling standard is random sampling, most qualitative studies use purposive sampling (Cynthia & David, 2003). Etikan et al., (2016) also complements that, in nonprobability sampling, randomization is not important in selecting a sample from the population of interest.

Cynthia & David, (2003) stresses two nonprobability sampling in qualitative research: convinience sampling and purposive sampling. Convenience sampling is a nonprobability sampling where participants are primarily selected based on ease of access to the researcher and, geographical proximity, and availability at given time (Lisa M, 2008). Purposive sampling is one which relies on the researcher judgment of participant selection for the study (such as people, organizations, events, pieces of data). Therefore, the sampling will basically focus on the characteristics of interest out of the population, which will answer the research question (Laerd, 2012).

For this research, I decided to undertake a nonprobability purposive sampling because the data collected was meant to contribute to a better understanding of the theoretical framework (Bernard, 2002). In addition, it allows identification and selection of the groups of people (in this case UI designers) who are well informed with this topic of research hence enhancing information richness (Patton, 2002). Furthermore, the availability and willingness of participants and the ability to communicate their experiences and opinions were considered while choosing a purposive sampling technique.

The target sample of this research are the designers of user interfaces for social commerce organizations with knowledge about user interface requirements for usability that enhance the user's behavior in a given usage time.

3.6 Data collection

Data collection is a such a crucial and important step in conducting research, because this data can be used as further contribution to the theoretical framework (Bernard, 2002). It is therefore

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of vital importance to attentively select how the data will be obtained and whom it will be acquired to have sound judgment, mostly when the analysis will be invalid with inappropriate collected data.

There are two types of data namely: Primary and secondary data (Merriam, 2002). Primary data is collected by the researcher for the purpose of a specific research and is related to the problem, while secondary data is collected for purposes other than the problem at hand (Smith &Albaum, 2005).

Primary data

Primary data is carried out to find information about the research problem at hand, using procedures that fit the research question best (Joop & Henny, 2005). According to Saunders et al. (2009), primary data could be collected by observation, questionnaires, sampling and interviews. Interview is the most used method for data gathering in qualitative study, as it allows access to vast information, despite of its requirement of extensive planning on the regard of the development of the structure. In addition, decisions about who to interview and how, whether to conduct them on a one-on-one basis or group interviews, and how to record and analyze them need to be put into account. Interviews can be structured, semi structured, or unstructured depending on the level of openness of the researchers to the overarching ideas during the interview. Furthermore, interviews can be face-to-face, telephone, email, and messenger interviews (Raymond Opdenakker, 2006). However, conducting interview study has some challenges for example time limitation as the process can be time consuming; and biasness that need to be minimized during the research design stage (Easterby-Smith, 2015).

In this research, I choose interviews to gather primary data as it helps to gain and discover more insights on the research topic from the firm perspective, while considering that these perspectives and attitudes may vary in practical terms. Interviews were carried out among three different social commerce companies and four respondents. A face-to face interview was used for the company located in Sweden with two respondents. Zoom interviews were used for companies in the UK with one respondent and in China with one respondent. The interviews took around 45 minutes to one hour and the interview questions asked can be found in the appendices. In addition, the method selected to conduct the interview was semi-structured interview because it

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allows open-ended questions that allow the interviewee to answer questions according to the flow of the conversation. Also, it allows me to probe and ask questions that clarify the interviewee's response during that interview, thus allowing a better understanding of the explanation from the participants' meaning. Moreover, not only being a flexible method, it also allows the researcher to gain more insights on answers that were not anticipated.

Secondary Data

Secondary data is data collected earlier by other researchers or for other purposes than research such as official statistics, administrative records or routine accounts kept by organizations (Joop& Henny, 2005). Researchers are facilitated with reliable frame of references for further investigation and strengthens case study research credibility (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2012). Secondary data supports researchers with a comprehensive understanding and development of wider knowledge base of the research topic. However using secondary data is associated with some characteristics challenges, such as the ability to locate data sources that are useful to the research problem, ability to retrieve the relevant data, and elevate how well the data meets the quality requirements of the current research and the methodological criteria of good scientific practice ((Joop& Henny, 2005).

The secondary data used in this study gathered data from multiple sources including books, journals, peer-reviewed articles and international conferences. The Primo search engine offered by Jonkoping university library site was utilized for further research. Furthermore, for a quality and rich scientific ground of research and to gain a deeper understanding, other online databases such as, Database A-Z, Scopus, Emerald, Web of science were used. In this regard, I used the phrases or key words in the search process to find relevant data, which are listed in the table 1 below:

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Main topic Subtopic 1 Subtopic 2

User interfaces usability in social commerce

Usability Social commerce success

Impact of UI usability on consumer behaviors (in social commerce)

User interfaces usability Consumer behavior

UI design requirements for usable s-commerce

systems.

UI Design requirements Social commerce

Table 1: Illustrates the secondary data key word categories used 3.7 Data Analysis.

This is the next step after data collection, and it requires a series of closely related procedures. During data analysis, data is turned into meaningful messages and builds up an appreciation of the structure and possibilities for analysis (Sapsford &Jupp, 2006). According to Saunders et al. (2009), data analysis is divided into five stages namely: starting from comprehending the data, integrating the data from various transcripts, identifying the key pattern and themes for further exploration, developing theory and drawing conclusion.

According to Bogdan & Biklen, (1982), data analysis in qualitative research is the process of systematically searching and arranging the interview transcripts, observation notes and any other non-textual material to increase the understanding of the phenomena. Analysis of data in qualitative research is not a technical exercise as in quantitative research methods, but more of a dynamic, intuitive and creative process of inductive reasoning, thinking and theorizing (Basit TN, 2003).

In this study data was analyzed through making sense of huge amounts of data by reducing the volumes of raw data and then identified the significant patterns related to my topic. Thereafter, I drew certain meanings from the data while developing a logical chain of evidence from the literature (Patton M, 2002). In order to achieve this, the data was categorized in order to sub

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divide the huge amounts of raw information or data and assigning them into categories which allowed finding common patterns in relation to the topic of study. (Dey I, 1993).

3.8 Method evaluation

There is a great importance to utilize a good research design in order to ensure quality during qualitative research, as it reduces the risk of getting wrong and biased results (Saunders et. al., 2015). Therefore, to ensure trustworthiness, Lincoln and Guba (1985) suggest the use of three criteria to focus on; credibility or Authenticity, dependability and transferability, Confirmability. In this regard, a brief description of each of criteria is given below as well as the actions taken to certify that this thesis achieves a high level of quality.

Credibility/Authenticity

Credibility is mainly concerned with the validation of findings and results and the extent which the researcher's account is believed and how appropriate it is with particular references (Seale, Gobo, Gubrium and Silverman, 2004).Assuring credibility is important as it leads the conscious effort to establish confidence in an accurate interpretation of the meaning of the data (Carboni, 1995). In addition, a high level of certainty is needed so as to attain credibility when a researcher is interpreting the data they would have come up with through respondents’ answers in interviews (Miles and Huberman, 1994). Although the respondents volunteered to be interviewed, I facilitated information regarding the thesis purpose and the theme of interview, since they wanted to get rich information which may be hard to answer spontaneously. Thus, this was also helpful for my end as a researcher in order to get rich information. In addition, this saves a lot of time for both the respondent and me since we are oaths persons with busy schedules.

To ensure authenticity, at the start of each interview session with each respondent, I started off by clarifying the method selected plus the ethical part of the study hence allowing them to feel comfortable and freely interact in regard to the interview questions. The interview was carried out in English language which both the interviewer and the respondents understood clearly in order to avoid miscommunication during the interview process.