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Week 39/2010: Eagerly anticipated” equals “good”

What you see is what you get. However, when analysing mobile phone use, researchers have found an even more wild phenomenon. The rosier the picture of a phone you receive in advance, the easier it is to use that phone.

Research subjects examined by Eeva Raita and Antti Oulasvirta first read either a positive or negative review of a new phone and then they tested the device in practice. Some subjects encountered a few problems, whereas others encountered many. When the users finally assessed the user experience, the positive advance information made them forgive a large number of usability issues.

In their Too Good To Be Bad study, the researchers say that the impact of expectations was strong, much stronger than was thought. Those who read a positive review gave the phone a usability evaluation that 70% better than that given by others.

For the mobile phone business, this is a very interesting finding. Few people purchase a phone based on their previous experience. In most cases, selections are made on the basis of advertising, comments from friends, and product reviews.

However, the article, which appeared in the publications of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society meeting, taking place in San Francisco, California, from 27 September to 1 October, only provides information on how clearly expectations show in the background of brief user experience. The next step for Raita and Oulasvirta, who work for the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, is to explore the effect of expectations in more long-term use.

The Helsinki Institute for Information Technology is a joint research unit of the University of Helsinki and Aalto University for basic and applied research.

Photo: tuija / Flickr
Translation: AAC Global

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