Interface Features and Users' Well-Being: Measuring the Sensitivity of Users' Well-Being to Resource Constraints and Feature Types
This study provides a method to quantify user well-being derived from interface features, which is useful for designers to make informed decisions about feature implementation, particularly concerning social information features.
This paper investigates how users' well-being is affected by the type of interface features and the constraints on resources like time and attention. It found that increased cost of feature use decreases well-being, well-being is a function of feature cost type, and well-being is sensitive to differences in feature type.
Users increasingly face multiple interface features on one hand, and constraints on available resources (e.g., time, attention) on the other. Understanding the sensitivity of users' well-being to feature type and resource constraints, is critical for informed design. Building on microeconomic theory, and focusing on social information features, users' interface choices were conceptualized as an exchange of resources (e.g., time), in return for access to goods (social information features). We studied how sensitive users' well-being is to features' type, and to their cost level and type. We found that (1) increased cost of feature use leads to decreased well-being, (2) users' well-being is a function of features' cost type, and (3) users' well-being is sensitive to differences in feature type. The approach used here to quantify user well-being derived from interface features offers a basis for asynchronous feature comparison.