Abstract:

［Purpose/Significance］This paper aims to explore the influence mechanism and essential factors of different website guide strategies on the users' mental model in the context of certain complex tasks. ［Design/Methodology］Questionnaire survey was used, and three guide strategies were selected, including instructions, videos of operation process, and the combination of instructions and videos. This study focused on the change of structural variables in the users' mental model with different guide strategies, and moderating effects of cognitive flexibility on the mental model. ［Findings/Conclusion］Several findings have been gained in this study. First of all, different guide strategies differ a lot in improving the structural variables of the users' mental model. However, there is no significant difference between instructions and the combination of instructions and videos in terms of users' beliefs, which indicates that users' perceived usefulness of guide strategy is not compatible with the actual usefulness. Secondly, in the context of complex tasks, the higher flexibility of users' cognition is, the faster change of variables present, and users are more likely to choose multiple guide strategies to learn. At the same time, instructions seem to have greater perceived usefulness, and users appear to prefer instructive documents. In the contrary, the lower flexibility of users' cognition is, the greater perceived usefulness of operation videos have. ［Originality/Value］This paper sorts out the influence mechanism of guide strategies on the change of the users' mental model with the regulation of cognitive flexibility. This study could provide reference for improving the guide strategies and users' satisfaction of websites.

Key words: Mental model, Website guide strategy, Cognitive flexibility, Perceived usefulness