User Experience Over Time - Modeling Users' Experiences with Interactive Systems - page 57

(Den Ouden et al., 2006). Secondly, products are increasingly becoming service-
centered. Often, products are being sold for lower prices and revenues are mainly
coming from the supported service (Karapanos et al., 2009c). Thus, the overall ac-
ceptance of a product shifts from the initial purchase to establishing prolonged use.
This chapter attempts two contributions. First, it attempts to inquire into the dif-
ferences between initial and prolonged experiences in terms of the way users form
overall evaluative judgments about products across time. In the field of user expe-
rience, a number of studied have attempted to inquire into how users form overall
evaluative judgments of products on the basis of quality perceptions (Hassenzahl,
2004; Mahlke, 2006; Tractinsky and Zmiri, 2006; Hartmann et al., 2008; Van Schaik
and Ling, 2008). An aspect that has been largely overlooked so far is that of tem-
porality, i.e. how users' experiences develop over time. As we use a product, our
perception of the qualities of the product will change (von Wilamowitz Moellen-
dorff et al., 2006). For example, we get used to it, which eventually changes our
perception of its usability; at the same time it excites us much less than in our first
moments with it. Even more interestingly, at different phases of use we will evi-
dently attach different weights to different qualities. In our first interactions with
a product we may focus on its usability and the stimulation that it provides to us.
After we use it for some time, we might become less concerned about its usability,
and other aspects of the product such as novel functionality or communication of a
favorable identity to others become more important. Two studies are being reported.
In study 1 we provided 10 participants with an innovative pointing device connected
to an Interactive TV set top box, and elicited their perceptions during the first week
as well as after four weeks of use. In study 2 we followed six participants through
the purchase of an Apple iPhone and the first month of use. Both studies provide
empirical findings on the differences between initial and prolonged experiences. A
conceptual model of temporality of experience is attempted and implications for
HCI practice are suggested.
Second, it raises a number of methodological issues in the assessment of the
dynamics of user experience over time. It questions the value of reductionist ap-
proaches where a-priori defined measurement models are employed in measuring
the user experience and suggests an alternative methodological approach that relies
on a) eliciting the experiences that are personally meaningful to each participant,
in the form of experience narratives , and b) employing content analysis techniques
in creating multiple levels of abstraction, from concrete idiosyncratic insights to
abstracted and generalized knowledge.

4.2 Background on Experience and Temporality

This section reviews some holistic and reductionist models in user experience re-
search and discusses their relevance for the study of the temporality of users'
experiences.