Technology Acceptance Model
Although written in 1997, this work: Morris, M. and Dillon, A. (1997) How User Perceptions Influence Software Use. IEEE Software, 14(4), 58-65
has great relevance today. They present the Technology Acceptance
Model (TAM) as a great way to see whether potential customers will use
your application in the future. You can ask your potential users
questions based on these four factors:
- Perceived usefulness - "the degree to which a user believes that using the system will
enhance his/her performance"
- Perceived ease of use
- "the degree to which the user believes that using the system
will be free from effort"
- Attitude Toward Using Your Application
- Behavioral Intention of Using Your Application
The above diagram illustrates how these factors are related.
Asking
questions on these 4 factors is far more effective than bluntly
asking users "how likely is it that you will use this application in the
future?" The other major benefit of course is that the above set of questions allow you to drill down on
what area needs work in your application.
Usability studies alone are by and large focused on completion of a series of tasks and it doesn't focus as much on user's perceptions, which according to this research, is the driving force behind whether a customer will use your application.
"TAM has been shown to be extremely successful
in predicting whether systems will be successful. Because of its simplicity,
it offers a cost-effective tool which can be used to evaluating
systems throughout the system design lifecycle."