The effect of language inconsistency on performance and satisfaction in using the Web: results from three experiments

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of linguistic inconsistency on performance and satisfaction on the Web. Three experiments were conducted, and the Interface Consistency Testing Questionnaire (Ozok and Salvendy 2001) was used in all three experiments to measure consistency levels. The three experiments using a total of 100 subjects evaluated the effects of direct manipulation, textbased, and hybrid interfaces with linguistic consistency and inconsistency on performance and satisfaction of the Web user. The experimental results indicated that both direct manipulation and text-based interfaces with linguistic consistency reduced performance time and error rates in comparison to inconsistent linguistics interfaces. Specifically in Reading Comprehension Tasks, subjects committed significantly fewer comprehension errors in consistent language interfaces than in inconsistent language interfaces.