Boring? Well, here's a breakdown...
To categorize people that use technology, we can divide them into two distinctions:
• Novice Users
• Power Users
Question: What defines these two groups of people?
Answer: The amount of 'experience' each of them have with using a system (application, device, etc.)
Novice users can be defined as new users that are learning the interactions of a system.
Power users are ones that have used it in-and-out and understand the navigation, processes, outcomes of actions, etc.
Why does this matter?
'User Experience' varies between understanding what the user knows beforehand and implementing it into an effectively usable process that accomplishes their goals.
For example, Turbo Tax has refined their approach to filing taxes in which users who may be inexperienced with taxes & technology can easily navigate through TurboTax. Their approach outlines minimal text and step-by-step instructions to make things beginner friendly.
On the other side of the story, take Adobe Photoshop. Now who the heck knows anything about Photoshop the first time they open it? You can click around for hours and maybe figure out a couple of things.
A system like this has an extremely high learning curve and largely benefits users who are able to gain experience and become 'power users' over time to utilize every function they need.
Creating a design with the understanding of learnability correlates to the user's loyalty for a system.
If the system is too easy to master, technologically advanced 'power users' may become bored of it and would even prefer inefficient systems just because it gives them an emotional satisfaction with figuring out how things work, just like a child would.
My Results
I found out - it depends.
What are we even 'defining' as experience within individuals? As there are potentially hundreds of variables in play.
I understand that's not what you want to hear - but get this.
There were 26 different studies that I reference but for the main points, users that are able to create strong neural synapses that allow for quick transition and flow of mental state possess the following:
• Strong language ability
• Conceptual understanding
• Grasping of frameworks
• The ability to efficiently understand their own knowledge
What does this really mean?
Novice users have to think and analyze their situations instead of making quick decisions.
Power users who are familiar with systems can utilize context clues and quickly evaluate actions & outcomes.
Wait, there's more!
Practice makes perfect, right?...
Sure, but what makes someone want to practice in the first place?
Motivation was a clear indicator that decided whether novice users would be successful with using a system.
Novice users understand that they might need to learn something to achieve their goals, this requires time and practice to explore the system.
Most of the time, they will not care to learn it. They just want to achieve their goals with minimal practice and mastery.
Conclusions
• The definition of 'expertise' is vague in technology.
• There are hundreds of variables to consider when understanding the gap of what you call a 'novice' and 'power' user for any given system.
• General use of technology may not have a big gap between novice and power users (more so in software & engineering domains)
• The major difference between novice and power users is the level of knowledge within the subject domain, level of practice, communication related to the topic, and overall satisfaction for using the system.
• Designers should take these main variables into consideration when developing learnability and satisfaction-scaling systems.
