Users’ expectations as an element of UX

This week I reviewed a paper by Thomas Olsson, titled “Layers of users expectations of future technologies: an early framework”.

 

This paper is grounded on the argument that “the anticipated use” of technology is just as important as “the actual use” by users, as this anticipation has effects on the actual user experience thus it is an essential element of UX cycle.

According to the author, there has been more research around the origins of “expectations” and the theories around it but there has been little empirical research to confirm these studies.

Therefore, the author aims to establish a work-in-progress framework defining the layers of users’ expectations of technologies in the near future. This framework is assumed to help researchers identify users’ expectations as an insightful input for their research and designs.

There are two elements on which the framework was based: theories from several disciplines and personal insights of the author. Mainly, the framework is inspired by “the level of expectations” by Teas where desires are the highest layer, then the experienced based assumptions, the social norms, and finally the must-be expectations is lowest layer. First, desires represent the underlying human needs and values. Second, experience-based assumptions is what people are used to and how their conceptual models affect their visions. Third, social norms include phenomena, other people’s opinion and the general culture. Fourth, must-be expectations represent the minimum acceptable features.

 

A minor issue with this framework is that its layers are not significantly different from each other. Classifying users’ expectations into these layers might not be effective as some expectations might fall in more then one layer. The other thing is regarding the extent by which the author assumes it is important to study users’ expectations in advance to develop better technology, however this might not be always the case as sometimes people like to be “impressed” by using something that they have never expected to use. Example of this the release of iPhone when it started completely different from what people used to experience with other cell phones. Also, Henry Ford popular statement that “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” On the other hand, users’ expectations sometimes might be unachievable as they might rely too much on the fact development of technology thinking that it can solve just any problem.