Judging a Book by its cover: Assessing the Comprehensibility and Perceived Appearance of Sign Language Avatars

Author(s)
Sandra Pauser, Udo Wagner
Abstract

The use of avatars is gaining popularity in today’s digitalized world. These computer-animated agents not only act as virtual shopping assistants to compensate for the impersonal feel of an online store, but are also frequently employed in gaming and social networking, and have recently served as animated characters for translation in the deaf community. New technological developments (sign language avatars) offer significant advantages for deaf users in daily interactions. This article explores how attitudes towards avatars, and subsequent satisfaction with the design company involved, can be increased through various measures. This experimental study manipulates the physical traits of signing avatars (gender, hairstyle, and dress) and analyses the outcomes in terms of their perceived properties, appearance, and comprehensibility, as well as more direct indicators of success (attitudes towards these avatars and satisfaction with the company). An industry partner cooperated in the empirical study to ensure the external validity of the findings.

Organisation(s)
Department of Marketing and International Business
Journal
Marketing ZFP - Journal of Research and Management
Volume
42
Pages
48-62
No. of pages
13
ISSN
0344-1369
DOI
https://doi.org/10.15358/0344-1369-2020-3-48
Publication date
2020
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
502020 Market research
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Social Psychology, Marketing
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/judging-a-book-by-its-cover-assessing-the-comprehensibility-and-perceived-appearance-of-sign-language-avatars(2e2b81ed-c312-4f1f-8992-74bfb736ad65).html