Expectations and User Experience

User experience is very much about expectations. Generally, if customers have low initial expectations, then your product can more easily surprise the customers positively (Figure 1-2).

Figure 1-2. Ideal user experience curve with low initial end-user expectations

But for superb products and sustainable brands, you actually want the customers to have high expectations. High expectations basically mean that you can charge more for your products. If you manage to build up high user expectations for your products, however, then you need to match (or ideally, exceed) these expectations for your next product. Not fulfilling the expectations may be fatal (see Figure 1-3).

Figure 1-3. User experience curve when not fulfilling high initial end-user expectations

Expectations may depend on cultural differences, how customers perceive your brand, and a number of other things. But the essential part in the context of this book is to realize how a good—or bad—user experience will affect the expectations of your product.

For a small local grocery shop, the customers may not expect the shop to have a full-blown superbly designed web page with photos and prices of all items, online sales, and so on.

End-user expectations of the web page for a grocery shop may initially be low partly because the customers do not expect that from a small shop, but also partly because most users may not have a need for a high-end web page for such a shop. Many grocery buyers often prefer to enter the physical shop where they can touch, feel, and immediately purchase the products.

However, these low end-user expectations can also be seen as a potential opportunity for a grocery shop that wants to stand out. If the owners actually choose to design a cool-looking web page with great user experience and online shopping, this may just be the thing that leads some customers into their shop and not the one next door.

A good user experience can hence easily and quickly change customers' expectations. Expectations for your product are hence not fixed. They will in fact change every time you—or your competition—raises the bar by providing successful user experience innovations.

Anecdote

Some years ago, most people did not feel a need to own a smart phone, since smart phones were seen as complicated high-end devices designed and intended for business people (and they were in fact complicated to use).

End users may have had a latent need for many of the core tasks that a smart phone could perform, but the hassle to get these tasks fulfilled was simply too overwhelming.

The first iPhone (Figure 1-4) changed the perception of a smart phone being complicated to use. And Apple changed the expectations of millions of users by allowing them to solve desired core tasks in an elegant and easy way.

Figure 1-4. Apple changed the perception and expectations of smart phones.

When Apple launches a new product, the expectations are always very high from their customers. And Apple can only survive by fulfilling or exceeding the customers' expectations.