“Am I Getting It or Not?” The Practices Involved in “Trying to Consume” a New Technology

Abstract

In recent years, high rates of failure of technology-based products have spurred interest in understanding the psychological and sociological barriers to consumer learning of technological innovations. The main focus of this research was to examine the learning process and consumers' coping mechanisms when they encounter technological innovations. A study was designed to understand the learning process in real time as consumers engaged in a set of activities associated with the novel interface. The goal was to investigate how consumers cope with high levels of complexity during their initial interactions with a technology-based product and how their coping strategies may hinder the learning process.Verbal protocol measures were used in order to understand the consumer's learning process as he or she interacts with a technology-based product in real time. They were told that they would have to think aloud while performing certain tasks and that their thoughts would be recorded for further analysis. The personal digital assistant (PDA) with handwriting recognition as its interface was chosen for this study. The main task for the participants was to learn how to use Graffiti writing-i.e., the product's handwriting recognition software. We proceeded to a thematic analysis in which interpretations were generated by the researchers going back and forth between the transcribed texts, the developing interpretation, the new interface itself, and also the relevant literature.The results suggest that the new product's interface serves to structure the consumer's learning process even as he or she responds in relatively unstructured ways. The findings identify three basic factors that interfere with the learning process during consumers' initial interactions with a technological innovation: interface and functionality practices, social influence, and causal attributions. Specifically, the results suggest that in designing technology-based products there is a gap between the levels of know-how between the manufacturer and the user. The challenge for manufacturers is to understand the consumer's learning experience and coping strategies and provide mechanisms that would make the transition easy and intuitive. This could be achieved by incorporating into the new interface some degree of flexibility that will allow consumers to modify tasks based on their preferences, or by including indicators that will provide feedback to the user. Furthermore, in the context of communication strategies, in order to minimize the negative impact that prior knowledge and social influence may have on learning, marketers could communicate specific steps describing how to use the new interface.

Design thinking in social organizations: Understanding the role of user engagement

“…A total of 38 interviews were collected from the four social organizations. Our sample is justified by the earlier qualitative research in the field (Ziamou, Gould, & Venkatesh, ). The respondents include six senior‐level employees from all the four organizations who are part of the senior decision‐making group, 12 middle‐level managers and 20 key members of the user groups, who played an active role during the co‐creation process.…”

The Lag-User Method: Using laggards as a source of innovative ideas

“…The Lag-User Method consists of five steps (zero to four). In line with the most recent literature in innovation and new product development (e.g., Lakshmanan & Krishnan 2011;Viswanathan & Sridharan 2012;Ziamou, Gould, & Venkatesh, 2012) we used university students to collect data for all the studies presented in here. We select our sample as groups of MBA or master students in a friendly atmosphere with a shared enthusiasm for the discussed topic, "whose members engage jointly in group actions to accomplish collective goals and/or to express mutual sentiments and commitments" (Bagozzi & Dholakia, 2006:45).…”

Perspective: A Review of Marketing Research on Product Design with Directions for Future Research

“…As mentioned in the Product function section, consumers in general tend to focus on product capabilities during purchase, while usability is more important during use. Further, Ziamou, Gould, and Venkatesh () illustrate the importance of manufacturers accounting for consumers' learning process through design within the context of technology‐based products.…”