Talking about products and operations: What are user expectations?

Well, I’ve been a bad product manager . Therefore, I usually don’t dare to show off my knowledge in this field. But think about it, after all, I have worked with the best product experts in China, so I might as well share my experience. I hope it can provide some inspiration to young people who want to enter the industry, or have just entered the industry and are interested in becoming product managers or product designers.

Let’s talk about user expectations today.

We say that qualified products must meet user expectations, and good products must exceed user expectations.

So, what about bad products? They arrogantly challenge user expectations.

So the question is, what are user expectations?

From a broad perspective, what do users want to accomplish when using your product, and what are their goals and demands?

From a small perspective, what are the expected results when users operate on your product views, interactive functions, each button, click link, and drag bar?

On a big level, we have already said enough when talking about needs. Today, let’s talk about the details.

The most common mistake we make in product design and operation is inconsistency with user expectations.

1. Naming and copywriting , user cognition expectations

Let’s first talk about a problem that most product operators are prone to.

From product naming to function naming to some feature naming, many designers show off their cultural sense, use specious words to name products, and use obscure hints to name products, which is very bad. I have mentioned this example before. The first person in Xiamen to create a big account, Yi Guangxu, who was mentioned in the children's shoe sharing session, started a big Weibo account and tried many names. At the beginning, he also used some obscure and self-proclaimed cultural names, but in the end, the one with the best effect and the best spread was the selection of cold jokes.

The first requirement for naming and copywriting is simplicity and directness. Of course, you can make the text more beautiful, but you must ensure one premise, that is, there should be no obstacles or ambiguity in user understanding.

This is the first step of user expectations. When users see your name and your copy, what will they think of and what will be their definition of your product?

The same goes for function naming. When you see the name of a function, it should be easily understood what the purpose of the function is and what kind of feedback you will get. However, there will always be people who show off words and come up with some inexplicable names to challenge users.

The second main point of naming and copywriting is to avoid any obstacles in user communication. What are the obstacles in user communication? Let me give you an example:

"Where did you buy this?"

“Baidu has it.”

"I know Baidu has it, but what is the name of the website you buy things from?"

“Baidu has it.”

"What is there? What am I searching for?"

“Yes, there is.”

"You are sick."

Baidu Youa, which was once a short-lived name, is a typical name with communication barriers because it is difficult to tell others simply and conveniently.

Of course, for giants, even if they come up with a weird name, due to the extremely high media attention and high exposure, the potential problems are not too big. It may even become a meme and stimulate its spread. But if it is an emerging startup , you absolutely cannot expect to have such an effect. Naming it like this is basically equivalent to sentencing yourself to death.

In addition to naming, the same applies to copywriting. This is a very typical example of common comprehension barriers.

"Are you sure you want to cancel this operation?" Two buttons, "OK", "Cancel". WTF?

2. Expectations of data logic

When the user selects a certain filtering method or sorting method during the operation, the results given should be in line with the user's filtering goals. This sounds like a basic demand, but in fact, many such problems arise in the product experience.

First, the issue of advertising priority.

For example, I have been searching for real estate information in Singapore recently. For example, I searched for real estate information in a certain area and at a certain price range on a real estate platform, but the first search results that popped up were some real estate information that did not meet the search expectations, and these were the advertising information that was displayed first.

The problem is that users will be surprised at first. Why are my search results inconsistent with my search expectations? How to correctly present advertisements and how to match them with users’ search expectations is a very important topic. It does not mean that advertisements cannot appear:

1) Whether the ads that meet the search criteria are displayed first;

2) If it does not meet the search criteria, can it be displayed separately from the natural results so as not to interfere with the user's operation goals?

Second, there is the problem of displaying some incomplete information.

For another example, take a certain car platform, and search for car information, and choose to sort by price, that is, low prices first. As a result, a bunch of luxury cars pop up. So what is the price information of these luxury cars? Negotiable!

If you flip through many pages and see that the price is negotiable, then what’s the point of users choosing this price order?

Problems like this are all about data logic being inconsistent with user expectations.

Third, there is the problem of not being able to understand the core demands of users.

Let’s still talk about looking at houses. When you look at the information of a house, similar properties will be recommended below. This is actually a good feature because users generally make many comparisons when choosing a property. If the strategy is well done and the information provided is valuable, it will definitely help the platform conversion rate . But I found a problem. The strategy did not seem to understand the concept of similar properties. I had been searching for properties with three bedrooms or more and had never searched for small apartments or small areas. However, the so-called similar properties recommended were almost all two-bedroom or even one-bedroom. Simply put, this strategy obviously did not understand the most basic demands of the target users.

Of course, I am not clear about the implementation mechanism of the platform. This issue may have more technical factors. But many times, a so-called good recommendation algorithm does not necessarily require excellent technology and implementation difficulty, but rather some basic strategies to correctly identify the user's target demands.

3. Expectations of user interaction feedback

When users see an action item, or some elements in a view, they have an expectation of the action.

An example of inconsistency between expectations. Oh, there is an underline here, and it seems clickable. I clicked it, but there was no response. I clicked it again, and there was still no response. Damn, it turns out that this is not a link.

There are many cases like this. We encountered this when we were testing the game . It looks like a button, but it’s actually just a decoration. Why does the decoration make people think it can be clicked?

In the case of inconsistent expectations, you clicked on condition A and condition B, and chose to search. You thought that the cases that should appear should meet both conditions A and B, but what appeared were cases that met either A or B. This is inconsistent expectations of user interaction feedback.

Another thing is visual feedback, which is also easy to overlook.

A game product from a startup company was given to me when it just started testing. I asked a question, a seemingly simple question. In a fighting game, the health (red) was displayed in the upper left corner, and the spell value (blue) was displayed in the lower left corner. I said that there was a problem with your design. During a fight, of course users need to get information quickly at a glance, such as how much health and mana they have left. If you show one here and one there, the user needs to glance twice, which is very wrong and the experience is not smooth.

What do we mean by a smooth experience? Many very detailed issues will be reflected. (Later, that game became a hit, and the company turned around, but to be honest, it wasn’t my fault.)

In addition, there was a problem with interactive feedback, which is also a problem in many games. For example, you have a button that performs a certain ultimate move, but the ultimate move has a cooldown period. For users with average operating skills (yes, that's me, with extremely poor operating skills) , there is a common wrong operation, which is to get excited and press the ultimate move continuously. At this time, only the first hit of the ultimate move is released, and after that, you just stand there and get hit.

I said that the operation feedback is not good. Although there is a cooling period, can you turn the ultimate skill into a normal attack during the cooling period? I can't just keep pressing the ultimate skill and then stand there and get hit. This is also a question of experience smoothness. Of course, I think some veteran players may not agree with this.

There is another case of inconsistent operational expectations. Of course, there may be disagreements on this issue, but it can also be listed here. Recently, I tested the WeChat public account version of “Mr. Wu’s Secret Circle”.

The operation steps are as follows: step 1, enter the official account ; step 2, click to enter my circle; step 3, choose to enter a certain circle, for example, I entered the circle of gossip; step 4, after seeing the introduction of a post, if you want to see more, click on the post title and enter the post page. This is the normal operation process, and all feedback is consistent with the operation expectations.

Next, the question arises: after reading the post, click the X at the top to close it. So at this time, what is the user's expected operation? Of course, you go back to the third step and continue to look at the list of posts in the gossip circle, but what feedback will be given? You go directly back to the first step, the homepage of the official account. In this way, the user experience is extremely unsmooth.

So, a new question arises. Why did I click the X? Strictly speaking, am I too stupid to use the back button? First of all, as a senior Android user, I have the impression that Apple does not have a back button. I don’t know if I am wrong. Secondly, I have completed all the operations by clicking on the interface, and suddenly I need to use the back button to return to the previous level. This is obviously out of touch with the previous operation method. From my habit, this is not a very good experience. For example, if you use a browser to browse a community and read posts, how many people would use the browser's built-in back button to return to the previous level?

Well, of course the developer can say that the design of this X is controlled by WeChat and they can’t do anything about it. But why did I click on the X? Because on the page, I didn’t see any link to return to the previous level. The problem here is not the X button, but the fact that this page does not have any links or instructions on how to return to the previous level. In this case, users will by default see the X at the top as an option to close the post and return to the previous level.

Later, I found that they did have a link below that could lead back to the third step, but the design of that link didn’t look like a link at all. In other words, all the user saw was a description with no click expectation at all.

We are talking about a concept that user experience should be smooth. What is a smooth experience? It means that every step of the user's interaction, every visual element, and every piece of information displayed can be consistent with the user's expectations. This is smoothness. A product that makes people scream is one that can provide results that exceed users' expectations in certain interactive feedback. The terrible thing about product design is that it gives results that challenge user expectations. In many such examples, designers actually think they are innovating.

Let me give you an example of exceeding expectations and challenging expectations.

For example, now, I go to book a hotel, I select some conditions, get the results, I choose a room that looks good, press confirm, and then enter the payment, and give feedback after the payment is completed.

So, what does it meet user expectations? Tell me that the room has been confirmed and I can go to the front desk to provide personal information to complete the check-in.

What does it mean to exceed user expectations? It tells me that the room has been confirmed and that I can complete the check-in by going to the front desk to provide my personal information. Then it provides some preferential information that I may need. For example, since I have already booked this room, if I book the steak house next door now, I can enjoy a 30% discount, or I can receive a gift package if I book the airport pick-up service.

It challenges user expectations by telling me that I can now choose steak house discounts and airport pick-up discount services. It then gives me seven or eight options and a bunch of links, and requires me to confirm or cancel all this information before I can continue to book a room!

In order to so-called improve user conversion rates, some platforms like to do things that challenge user expectations. You must first complete the user's goals and then provide additional choices and discounts, rather than putting the user's goals behind a bunch of your own personal goods.

4. Manage user expectations

Don't try to make users have overly idealistic expectations of your products and services. This is actually not a good thing.

Let me give you an example, I won't name any names, but a certain brand of mobile phone said at a press conference what suppliers and brands or models of accessories they would use, and how good the product was and how high its technical standards were. After the product was released, some picky users discovered that the product actually used another type of accessories and exposed this. At this time, you have to explain that this brand of accessories is not bad and fully meets our quality requirements. Yes, maybe, from a technical point of view, this explanation itself is fine. The question is, what expectations did you give to users before?

This is an example I mentioned before, but I can’t remember which article it was.

In the early days of Meitu , every week, product managers, technicians, designers and their boss Wu would go to Xiamen University to find a bunch of girls to do product testing. The girls used the products while they watched and communicated with them. What were they observing? What are the users communicating about their operations? User operation expectations, to analyze and discover inconsistencies between the product and user operation expectations. For example, why do you want to click this button and what result do you hope to get by clicking it. This is their daily routine of user research and product polishing.

We have seen many articles about how Meitu XiuXiu succeeded, all of which tell you how correct the direction is, how broad the field is, and where the idea came from. Of course, these are all important; but only I will tell you in addition that without the polishing of such product details, the above will not constitute complete competitiveness. Fu Sheng saw all of the above very clearly, but the Niu Imaging was not successful.

Finally, let me talk about something vague and general.

User expectations: First of all, you need to see how user demands are being met at the current stage.

If at the current stage, in a certain field, the way users’ demands are met is through a very bad experience, then new technologies or new business models can better meet users’ demands. You can achieve a disruptive breakthrough and easily exceed user expectations. The so-called blue ocean is this kind of thing. It depends on who makes the breakthrough first.

However, when the satisfaction level of user demands in this field is already very high, user expectations will become higher and higher, and it will be very difficult to improve them. This is what is called the cruel competition in the red ocean.

The same is true for politics. When a country or region is poor, backward, and in civil strife, and the people are struggling for their livelihood and survival, whoever gives them jobs, shelter, and allows their children to go to school and have hope for the future, this person or political party will surely gain great support from the masses.

But when the new generation grows up, they are used to air-conditioning and computers, and take education, housing, public security and all kinds of convenient living and entertainment facilities for granted. At this time, their expectations are even higher. They hope to have welfare like those in Northern Europe, but ignore their tax burden; they complain that talents from emerging countries have snatched their better jobs, but refuse to face up to the efforts they have made. When public expectations are too high, all political issues become difficult.

The above is the reason why the older generation in Singapore strongly supports Lee Kuan Yew, while the younger generation strongly disagrees.

The above is also the reason why many Western countries are caught up in various political issues and are finding it increasingly difficult to move forward.