Information Technology Reference
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Model a
Model b
Heidelberg
Emphasis on
Achievement
München
Aachen
Pale colours
Professional
Karsruhe
München
Heidelberg
Emphasis on
Achievement
Mainz
Mannheim
Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Technical vs.
average univ.
Aachen
Karlsruhe
Darmstadt
Legible
Mannheim
Mainz
Technical vs.
medical orientation
Darmstadt
Fig. 3.2
Two diverse views for one participant
Last, the participants perceive this same group of websites as legible as opposed to
the remaining four in the upper part of the figure that are perceived as having no
clear structure.
The second view partly provides overlapping information (emphasis on achieve-
ment), but also gives three new insights. First, the website of the University of Hei-
delberg is differentiated from all others by having a less colorful layout. Second, the
Universities of Darmstadt, Aachen and Karlsruhe are differentiated as universities
that provide primarily technical studies, as opposed to the universities of Mainz,
Mannheim and Frankfurt that are referred to as universities of average quality, and
third, as opposed to the university to Heidelberg that is perceived as a university
offering primarily medical studies.
Note that an attribute may range from being purely descriptive, i.e. referring to
specific features (e.g. allows searching), to having an evaluative tone, e.g. referring
to the perceived quality of the product (e.g. easy to use) or the product's overall
appeal (e.g. good). This enables the researcher to gain a better understanding of the
inferences individuals make as they form evaluative judgments of products.
3.3.3.1
The Resulting Views
Table 3.4 summarizes the results of the above analysis for all ten participants. For
two of the ten participants (7, 8), no substantial agreement between their attribute
judgments is observed, i.e., no satisfactory MDS-model can be derived. This im-
plies that they either have as many different views as their attribute judgments, or
more likely, that their ratings are too noisy to be analyzed in a meaningful way. For
another three participants (3,5,9) only one satisfactory model is determined, which
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