Ascertaining the Influence of Style on the Credibility and Appeal of a Digital Health Avatar

As part of a project to develop a mobile app, with the capability to aid users in accessing their full lifelong healthcare history, a digital patient avatar was proposed, to be used as a visual display of information and a navigation tool within the app. With this article we aim to build upon previous research to identify how the appearance of this sort of avatar might influence the perceived credibility and trust placed on the information displayed in the app, specifically within the healthcare context. To this end, a survey was executed in which participants would be presented with a series of avatars with different visual styles, and their attitudes towards each of the avatars were recorded. The results fell mostly in line with preconceived hypotheses, that realistic avatars hold greater credibility but higher discomfort while stylized avatars generate increased affinity. However, some additional observations were made as to the discomfort caused by the improper combination of stylized and realistic elements within the same avatar. These results indicated that, for further development of the avatar’s visual style, a more comprehensive study would be needed to fine-tune the most adequate point between realistic and stylized.