What makes users happy?

Computer P u b l i s h e d b y t h e I E E E C o m p u t e r S o c i e t yclients offer a good computing experience. As network quality degrades, interactive performance suffers.It is latency-not bandwidth-that is the greater challenge. Tightly coupled tasks such as graphics editing suffer more than loosely coupled tasks such as Web browsing. The combination of worst anticipated network quality and most tightly coupled tasks will determine whether a thin-client approach is satisfactory for an organization.Stateless thick clients, an alternative to thin-client computing, preserve many of the benefits of thin-client computing but eliminate its acute sensitivity to network latency. This alternative approach achieves this improvement by asynchronously transferring more runtime state to a client and executing from that state on a local processor. TIME-SHARING REDUXIn his 1983 classic, "Hints for Computer System Design," 2 Butler Lampson offered the following quote from Jim Morris: "The nicest thing about the Alto is that it doesn't run faster at night." This quote succinctly captures the joy of a time-sharing user who has just discovered the crisp, unvarying performance of a personal computer on highly interactive tasks. Gone is the pain of sluggish interactive response during periods of peak load. By colocating a processor with each user, personal computing offers a computing experience that is unaffected by the actions of other users.The adequacy of thin-client computing is highly variable and depends on both the application and the available network quality. For intensely interactive applications, a crisp user experience may be hard to guarantee. An alternative-stateless thick clientspreserves many of the benefits of thin-client computing but eliminates its acute sensitivity to network latency. Niraj Tolia, David G. Andersen, and M. SatyanarayananCarnegie Mellon University A fter a few false starts in the past decade, thinclient computing is finally gaining serious attention and acceptance among large and medium-size companies. For example, recent Wall Street Journal articles (17 Jan. 2005, 3 Feb. 2005) predicted that more than 3 million enterprise desktops, amounting to 10 percent of the market, will be thin clients by 2008. These articles also mention Time-Warner, Wal-Mart, and the Pentagon as examples of enterprises that are adopting thin clients in significant numbers. Microsoft is also reported to be close to releasing a stripped-down version of Windows XP that transforms an old PC into a thin client (www. brianmadden.com; 18 April 2005).A thin client consists of a display, keyboard, and mouse combined with sufficient processing power and memory for graphical rendering and network communication with a compute server using a specialized protocol. All application and operating system code is executed on the server. The client has no long-term user state and needs no disk. A standard PC can be made to function as a thin client through software such as Virtual Network Computing (VNC). 1 We describe an approach ...

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“…[3][4][5][6][7] From these studies, a broad consensus has emerged on acceptable response times for trivial interactions:…”

Section: Interactive Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying Interactive User Experience on Thin Clients

2006

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“…Confirmation effects manifest where individuals feel satisfied when outcomes match or exceed expectations or desires and feel dissatisfied when outcomes fall short of expectations or desires (Bhattacherjee, 2001;Rushinek and Rushinek, 1986). Confirmation effects differ from goal attainment effects in that, where expectations differ from goals, confirmation effects can manifest when expectations are met, even when goals are not met.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Yield Shift Theory of Satisfaction and Its Application to the IS/IT Domain

Briggs¹,

Reinig²,

Vreede³

2008

JAIS

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Information Systems / Information Technology (IS/IT) Satisfaction is a key indicator of IS/IT success. For IS professionals and providers, satisfaction is critical throughout the life of a system because dissatisfied stakeholders can derail implementation, discontinue using an important system, erode IS/IT budgets, or even transfer their entire IT infrastructure to a different organization. The IS literature offers several perspectives on satisfaction, but none yet accounts fully for known satisfaction phenomena. We identify ten observed satisfaction effects, and summarize six existing models for satisfaction, identifying their merits, and the limits of their explanatory power. We then advance Yield Shift Theory (YST), a new causal theory for the satisfaction response that offers a more complete explanation of this phenomenon. YST derives two propositions from five assumptions to propose that variations in the satisfaction response are caused by shifts in yield for an individual's active goal set. We argue the falsifiability and scientific utility of the theory, discuss its relevance to the IS/IT artifact, and suggest a variety of directions for future research.

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“…Similar to Powers and Dickson (1973), they did not consider specific attributes of the report but asked users to report on their satisfaction as a whole using a single question. Likewise, Ginzberg (1981), Rushinek and Rushinek (1986), and Alavi and Henderson (1981) evaluated user satisfaction using a single-item, the latter of whom concluded that user satisfaction with decision support systems was directly affected when additional aids were offered during the decision making process.…”

Section: User Satisfaction: the Outcome-oriented Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One can further classify many of these antecedents as aspects of the information, system, or service components of an IS, with the general thesis being that one's perception of these antecedents would determine one's satisfaction with the antecedents themselves or with each component or with the system as a whole. For example, Rushinek and Rushinek (1986) listed 17 factors impacting overall satisfaction; these factors varied widely and included system-and service-related factors and others (e.g., system response time, system expandability, system cost, promptness of equipment delivery, energy efficiency of the system, compatibility of peripherals/programs, number of users, percentage/number of mainframes/PCs, etc.). Debons et al (1978) also identified 10 factors related to user satisfaction; namely, timeliness, reliability, assistance, accuracy, access, accommodation, communication, adequacy, environment, and cost.…”

Section: Antecedents Of User Satisfactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

User Satisfaction Research in Information Systems: Historical Roots and Approaches

Vaezi¹,

Mills²,

Chin³

et al. 2016

CAIS

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Abstract:User satisfaction with information systems (IS) is considered an important indicator of information systems success and has been the subject of numerous research studies since the field's inception. In this paper, we review the user satisfaction research in the IS field. We discuss the roots of user satisfaction research as it pertains to satisfaction studies in marketing research and how these studies have been used to inform the IS context. We also discuss how the study of user satisfaction and use of the construct in IS research has evolved and matured over time. Finally, we discuss antecedents and outcomes of user satisfaction identified in IS research and provide suggestions for future research.

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What makes users happy?

Abstract: The results of a user questionnaire are used to determine the effects of 17 different independent variables on user satisfaction.

Cited by 128 publications

References 3 publications

Quantifying Interactive User Experience on Thin Clients

Quantifying Interactive User Experience on Thin Clients

The Yield Shift Theory of Satisfaction and Its Application to the IS/IT Domain

User Satisfaction Research in Information Systems: Historical Roots and Approaches

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