The overall results from this study of 32 participants found that 9 out of 11 features have been attributed to “performance” quality, where customer satisfaction increases proportionally with increased functional performance. The remaining 2 of 11 proposed features were attributed to “attractive” quality where lower functional performance does not affect high customer satisfaction. These attractive features are perceived as delightful but perhaps not as necessary or may have lower functional performance based on a lower quality design execution of these functions.
Of the proposed features, there were no attributions to “indifferent,” “reverse,” or “must-have” qualities. “Must-have” qualities refer to features that functionally perform well, and must exist based on customer’s base expectations, without contributing to high customer satisfaction. The lack of responses in the “must-have” category is perhaps due to the novelty of the proposed solution, where expectations do not yet exist for what functions should exist for this type of product. The limitation of results for the “indifferent” and “reverse” categories is likely a result of the systematic UCD method, which proposes features based directly on user needs instead of biased speculation. Further insight into which features may belong to these categories can be obtained through the diversification of participants outside the target user profile to understand how other demographic characteristics affect feature prioritization. This can uncover new persona types, including a clear distinction between primary and secondary user-profiles and a “non-persona” to describe a user who does not want to use a product or service (Augustin et al., 2021).
Over time, features change in their attributed categorical qualities. Performance features eventually become attributed to must-be qualities, especially as competitors offer alternate solutions and standardized approaches appear for the same problem space. Therefore, to position this product appropriately in the market, it would be essential to propose additional “attractive” features while maintaining performance features as they inevitably become expected.
The goal of this study was to utilize the UCD framework to avoid deterministic thinking and bias from the researcher as a methodology to incorporate behavioral research from the field of psychology as inspiration to propose a design solution within interaction design. Design is a broad practice ranging from biased speculation to empirically researched and substantiated. This research study balances both spectrums, incorporating processes of biased speculation such as the QFD analysis and qualitative analysis of focus interview studies with the Kano model analysis to compare systematic speculation with user responses.
Based on the initial online questionnaire, interview subjects reported a high level of importance for the progression of their personal pursuits, which aligns with the findings of self-determination theory (SDT), indicating autonomy and competence as two of the basic human psychological needs (Ryan & Deci, 2020). The focus interview study discovered that the persona’s primary needs are to see one’s actions aligned with goal-congruent (Ludwig et al., 2020).
For the proposed features to lack “indifferent” and “reverse” qualities suggests there is merit to how the proposed features responded to the actual needs of users. This indicates that extracting user requirements may have been successful, despite focusing on qualitative insight. Furthermore, it suggests that the systematic process of relating proposed features to user needs through the QFD analysis may have been influential in proposing desirable features for the respective problem space.
Lana’s persona has been outlined as working full-time because of the speculation that this problem space is more applicable to those working full-time. However, while full-time workers averaged a rating of 4.17 out of 5 in persona relatability, those not working related to the persona 4.20 out of 5. This suggests that while the persona was appropriate to consider the full-time demographic, there is still an opportunity to represent the non-working, perhaps with a secondary persona that captures the unique motivations and needs of the customer segment.
The QFD analysis is a structured approach to relating proposed features with user needs; however, due to its subjective nature, evaluating the results against the Kano analysis.
The results show similarity in prioritization between 7 out of 11 features but notable differences in 4. Features C2 (rearrange with flexibility) and C1 (calendar events on the agenda) were ranked lower in priority based on the QFD analysis due to the perception of these being delightful yet optional. However, in the Kano model analysis, they were ranked with an overall higher priority by users. Features A2 (weekly guided calculation) and B1 (weekly-reflection prompts) focus on weekly prompts and calculative support, which were perceived to be core to the application. These specific features need to be field-tested with a functional prototype to gain insight into user behavior; data is needed long-term to determine how prompts fit into user lifestyles.
The target user profile focused on those aged 27-35, working full-time, and assumed to identify as North American culturally. Those aged 23-26 have the highest overall rating in overall self-reported importance to all features, as well as those who primarily culturally identify with East or Southeast Asia. The targeted choice of North American identification was to narrow down the demographic rather than optimize for the highest appeal; the results, however, show interest across cultures. This reinforces the universal need for competence as autonomy, which applies to individualistic versus collectivistic or vertical versus horizontal societies (Nalipay et al., 2020; Ryan & Deci, 2020).
The speculation to not include the age group 23-26 within the target user profile was based on the premise that this age group has lower appeal with higher tolerance to unstructured schedules due to the proximity of timing with recent graduation and career building. The results greatly challenged these assumptions, showcasing the relevance based on high-ranked overall importance to features among the age group 23-26. While the target profile was focused on narrowing the focus to a specific demographic, the study results reveal the value of expanding the sampling beyond target demographic groups to reinforce its selection.
While those working full-time rated overall proposed features high in self-reported importance, those who indicated they are not working reported higher overall importance to proposed features. This would require further investigation with alternate secondary personas to discover if that market is those who are not working and what other characteristics they may have.
Understanding how a user’s level of notification fatigue affects their perception of features is essential to this thesis topic, especially since this research intends to build traction rather than promote distraction via fatiguing notifications. The conceptual emphasis of the proposed features utilize the mechanism of prompting awareness to bring attention to a goal (Ludwig et al., 2020) and with the follow-through efforts of self-regulation.