Here in part 5 of this arc on Expectation versus Satisfaction we discuss the fact that more plays into how visitors respond to your website than design issues. This arc was spawned by regular reader Susan Prager sending me Site Development Lags Expectations.
I shared in part 1 of this arc that I'm not shocked by the information in the article and asked "Why is expectation so low?". I'm suggesting answers from Reading Virtual Minds, Chapter 6, "Expectation versus Satisfaction".
One of those answers is based on observing people browsing websites demonstrate minute anxiety responses even though they're in an (assumedly) safe environment. Part 2 of this arc offered that unmet expectations is the reason for the anxiety. Part 3 dealt with people responding to new forms of information and part 4 dealt with the difference between expectation and satisfaction.
That offered, any such metric is interesting because it makes the assumption that the website and the website alone plays a significant role in visitors' experience and satisfaction levels. This isn't the case. Compare the figure on the right (described in Site Development Lags Expectations, Part 4) with the following three figures. The top figure shows the average expectation and satisfaction results for a 15 day period covering 1900h, 2 June 04 - 1900h, 17 June 04.
The second through fourth figures cover three different 20 minute time periods. The image on the right covers 0900-0920h 18 June 04.
The image on this right covers 0920-0940h 18 June 04.
This figure covers 0940-1000h 18 June 04. It can be jokingly stated that the differences in expectation levels in these last three figures are due more to the wearing off of the effects of morning coffee and having to sit down and get some work done, and you wouldn't be too far from the truth.
These figures are examples of expectations being met and not being met, and in many cases whether an expectation is met or not is only partially controllable by design.
Next up, how much does what's going on in the visitor's world affect their satisfaction with a site?
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- Blog posts about Reading Virtual Minds, Chapter 6 "Expectation versus Satisfaction"
- Blog posts about Reading Virtual Minds, Chapter 7 "Experience versus Expectation"
- Consumer Psychology posts
- Expectation posts
- Reading Virtual Minds
- Reading Virtual Minds, Chapter 6, "Experience versus Expectation"
- Site Development Lags Expectations
- Susan Prager
- The Site Development Lags Expectation blog arc:
(Information in this arc is from Chapter 6, "Experience Versus Expectation" of my next book, Reading Virtual Minds. Text and images copyright Joseph Carrabis and NextStage Evolution 2006-2007)
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