ShareWheels: Private car renting

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine how a web application can be designed with focus on different appeal and functionality features to increase trust. This was examined through the development of a peer-to-peer car renting web application. When developing a web application, an important aspect is to meet the needs and demands of the users. Therefore, understanding why and how users develop trust for a web application by implementing different features is crucial. Because of this, four different versions were implemented where either functionality, appeal or both were high or low. The versions were referred to as "low functionality and low appeal", "high functionality and high appeal", "high functionality and low appeal" and lastly "low functionality and high appeal". For each version, eight different test subjects were given tasks to perform on the web application while using the Think Aloud Procedure. Afterwards they were asked to fill out ananonymous survey where they rated different statements evaluating functionality and appeal according to the Likert scale. The results implied that both functionality and appeal are important factors regarding users trust for a web application. Furthermore, the results implied that the appeal of a web application had greater impact on the test subjects experienced trust than the functionality. Lastly, this study can provide recommendations for future web developers to create a trustworthy and user-friendly web applications that both attracts and retains users.