Understanding User Centricity

Understanding“User-Centricity“Cultivating Affinity & Attraction

Overview

The following shows, as a diagnostic aid, what factors allow or promote User-acceptance of proposed and offered products, and where the influence of those factors is strongest.

Emphasizing those factors during production design and provision is the main idea referred to as being “User-centric”.

“Centricity” is a matter of explicit priorities.

To understand, cultivate and intentionally harvest acceptance based on user-centricity, it is necessary to recognize what has priority to Users and why.

User-centricity succeeds when, in the moment, a balance between a User’s need and appetite results in acceptance of the provider’s offer.

What is a User

To make a “user” central to the production and provision of an offering, there first must be a representation of the User that distinguishes it from other independent variables in the production and provision formulas.

By definition, a deliberate production of anything will always include the resource, method, output and objective that was used to initiate, proceed and complete the presumed item, activity or condition desired.

As a rule, the term “User” refers to something different and separate from all of that.

A User is a customer or consumer whose primary behaviors are to select, receive, apply,and possibly retain the “deliverable” or sharable results (i.e., the offering) of the production.

Possible vs. Necessary

The characterization of those several User behaviors can be derived by identifying the basic options logically relevant to each and all of them: what, why, when, where and how.

All four of the User characteristics can have options included as potential prerequisites for a provider’s logical expectation that the product will be accepted by the customer or consumer.

The question is whether the potential prerequisite is critical to acceptance or not.

Unless alternative offerings are scarce, this criticality is usually more demonstrable in cases of omissions preventing acceptance, rather than by inclusions causing acceptance.

“User” Behaviors

select receive apply retain

Potential PreRequisites

What ** ** *

Why *** ***

When ***

Where * **

How **

©2015 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

The Who Cares Test

“Centricity” refers to actually making any “critical” prerequisite a higher priority of production and provision, compared to other kinds of priorities.

If the probability (expectation) is high that something will be a decisive prerequisite to acceptance, then the design aspect of the production and provision will emphasize elements of production and provision that support the higher priority (i.e., “production value”) of that prerequisite. The priority makes the prerequisites terms of acceptance.

Example: potentially, “when” and “why” can be most decisive in the case of a given User. Design can treat them as critical prerequisites in order to maximize the probability of the offering’s acceptance.

Other factors, although less important, can also be handled as prerequisites to assure that the customer or consumer’s scope of awareness is not under-addressed.

The producer wants the scope of the offer to coincide well with the user’s scope of awareness.

User Awareness

The User’s scope of awareness is defined from four points of view: Presence, Proof, Convenience and Preference.

Each point of view is a way that the individual User recognizes the “importance” of the offer’s idea and of the offer’s promise of benefit.

Put most simply, an offer that fails in any of the four points of view is less likely to be accepted.

Marketing affects overall awareness, and awareness affects overall acceptance of the producer’s offer.

presence

proof

convenience

preference


Predisposed Awareness

Users have predispositions originating as seen here. These predispositions are involved in trade-off decisions during the evaluation of offers:

A predisposition affects multiple points of view. For example, in the model shown next, the Presence and Proof points of view (POVs) share some predispositions: both are affected by social and private attitudes. Changes in those attitudes can affect one or both POVs.

Predisposition types

Influence on evaluation Predisposition types

Influence on evaluation

Social Significance in Group context Private Significance in Personal context

Endorsement Accepts external recommendation VS. Identity Seeks internal correspondence

Excitement Option to pursue aspiration Security Requirement to protect current status

Culture Community principles Role Individual purpose


PREFERENCE

PR

ESENC

E

PROOF

CO

NV

ENIE

NC

EUser

Centricity

Does it conform to the way I

want to be?

Does this enable my priorities

Is the proposed impact credible to me?

Is the offer visible and

actionable right now?

• Social• Private

• Culture • Role

• Excitement• Security

• Endorsement• Identity

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CONCEPT

OFFER

presence

proof

convenience

preference

attraction

APPETITE

OVERALL ACCEPTANCE


affinity

NEED

Affinity and attraction are interrelated, but their respective influence on acceptance of an offer involves different combinations of terms.

CONCEPT

OFFER

presence

proof

convenience

preference

AFFINITY

selectors

CRITERIA

Under circumstances of expressed need, a user relates to an offer of interest with sensitivity to whether the offer is appropriate. ©2015 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

affinity

NEED

ATTRACTION

selectors

CRITERIA

CONCEPT

OFFER

presence

proof

convenience

preference


Under circumstances mainly featuring appetite, the acceptability of an offer reflects whether it is in the user’s “comfort zone”.

attraction

APPETITE

engaging

demonstrable

compatible

aspirational

attraction

purpose

utility

availability

scenarios

interest

relevance

requirements

profiles

goals

affinity

NEED TIMING APPETITE

RECOGNITION


An offer may or may not be repeatable, but the user makes a decision based on whether (and how) it is acceptable at the moment.

©2015 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra [email protected]