Abstract
This paper describes a comparative evaluation study carried out to assess the effect of incorporating avatars with facial expressions into interfaces of Electronic Customer Knowledge Management Systems (E-CKMS) on not only usability of E-CKMS, but also the user's trust and knowledge. Although the implementation of E-CKMS encounters several challenges, such as the lack of trust and information overload, few empirical studies were devoted to examine the role of metaphors of audio-visual nature. As a result, an empirical investigation was carried out by implementing avatars-enhanced multimodal E-CKMS (ACKMS) and comparing it with the text with graphics E-CKMS (VCKMS) and anther multimodal E-CKMS (MCKMS) that incorporated speech, earcons and auditory icons. The three experimental systems were evaluated by three independent groups of twenty users each (n - 60) who performed eight common tasks of increasing complexity and design based on three different styles. The results therein revealed that the ACKMS outperform both MCKMS and VCKMS with regard to effectiveness, efficiency and the user's trust and knowledge.