Strategies for Adjusting User Expectations during Smart Product Development
Smart products: Breaking down the expectations game
Welcome to the era of smart products - gadgets and apps that can perform an astounding array of tasks while adapting to our activities, context, and even personalities. As more and more of these intelligent devices fill our lives, we're starting to expect them to be as intuitive and communicative as fellow humans. Unfortunately, 21st-century technology isn't quite there yet. In this guide, we'll take a closer look at the psychology behind how people interact with smart products and offer some guidelines for designing smart products that won't disappoint.
What the heck are smart products, anyway?
Smart products are pretty much anything that can gather data about their users and the surrounding environment and use that information to adapt their behavior accordingly. Examples might include sun blinds that lower automatically when the sun is shining or a travel app that offers personalized vacation suggestions based on your past trips. Basically, if a product gathers data about you or your environment and uses it in a smart way to adapt its own behavior, it's likely a smart product. In some instances, the interaction between a smart product and its user can feel more like a conversation than just using a tool.
You should feel like you're talking to your smart home, not your old radio.
A smart product can seem smarter the less it requires from the user
When a product does things without being asked and seems intelligent, our minds automatically look for evidence that it possesses some level of consciousness. Being able to self-initiate actions is the most fundamental clue that something or someone is intelligent. With smart products, however, it can often be challenging to anticipate exactly how much intelligence to expect because we don't have much experience with them.
Managing user expectations when designing smart products
- Users treat smart products like intelligent beings - Research shows that users tend to interact with smart products as if they were intelligent and purposeful. As such, it's crucial to understand the expectations users have for their smart products.
- Designers need to understand the user's context - As designers, we can sometimes underestimate the complexity of understanding the user and their context. To tackle this challenge, it's essential to design smart products that can anticipate user needs without getting in the way or causing confusion.
What do users expect from smart products?
In a study by Byron Reeves and Clifford Nash, they found that even though people consciously perceive technological products as objects and not persons, their immediate behavior toward them sometimes resembles how they would act toward another person. In other words, we may treat technology as a social being without even realizing it. This tendency can make it challenging to design smart products that meet user expectations.
The key is to manage user expectations effectively:
Guidelines for managing user expectations:
- Never overpromise - only create something that looks intelligent if it actually is.
- Cooperation not domination - clearly inform the user of what a product is able to do and what it is currently doing.
- Mind your manners - if a product is intelligent, it should still adhere to basic social rules, such as not interrupting the user unless it's necessary.
What can technology predict about the user's context?
When designing smart products, it's important to consider how much of the user's environment the product should take into account and how much autonomy it should have. Understanding the user's context is key to designing a smart product that strikes the right balance between independence and attentiveness.
The guidelines for handling limitations:
- Don't assume that your product can fully understand the user's context.
- Offer options, not forced actions - make suggestions easily available to users, but avoid interrupting them with unsolicited advice.
- Embrace limited scenarios - focus on situations where the product has a firmer grasp of the context.
- Provide a way for users to take control - always offer an easy way to turn off an autonomic action or adaptation.
In closing
With smart products on the rise, it's essential to design products that are not only intelligent but also user-friendly. Understanding the psychology behind how people interact with smart products can help you create smart products that are as intuitive and enjoyable to use as they are advanced. By keeping the user's needs and expectations at the forefront of the design process and basing decisions on research, you can help ensure a successful and satisfying experience for everyone.
Sources:
Network Effects: Find the Right Design Templates for your Product – CanvaUnderstanding User Expectations from Smart Products – MediumThe Psychology of User Interaction with Intelligent Environments – ResearchGateUnderstanding User Expectations for Smart Products – UX Collective
A smart product can seamlessly blend into a user's daily life, displaying a level of artificial intelligence that makes it feel like an active participant rather than just a tool. By anticipating user needs and self-initiating actions, a smart product can foster an impression of intelligence and consciousness among users.
When designing smart products, it's important to carefully manage user expectations by avoiding overpromises, adhering to social rules, and being mindful of contextual limitations. Understanding the user's context is critical for creating smart products that strike a balance between independence and attentiveness, ultimately resulting in an experience that is as intuitive and fulfilling as it is innovative.
