User Experience (UX) with Mobile Devices: A Comprehensive Model to Demonstrate the Relative Importance of Instrumental, Non-Instrumental, and Emotional Components on User Satisfaction

Abstract

Despite growing interest in User Experience (UX), the empirical testing of UX models, particularly the interdependence of UX dimensions and their impact on user satisfaction, remains limited. This study fills this gap by examining a UX model for smartwatch and smartphone users through an online survey and partial least squares (PLS) regression analysis. Our findings reveal that both instrumental and non-instrumental qualities, alongside the emotions elicited by mobile devices, are interconnected and crucial to users. Notably, instrumental qualities tend to elicit negative emotions, whereas non-instrumental qualities elicit predominantly positive emotions. The observed relationships among various UX factors and user satisfaction underscore the significance of the proposed UX model and, more broadly, highlight the importance of UX research in deciphering the psychological processes encountered when individuals interact with technology.

Keywords:

• User experience
• smartphone
• smartwatch
• instrumental qualities
• non-instrumental qualities
• emotional reactions

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Ethics

This research has been approved by the Ethic Committee from the Faculty of Psychological Science and Education of the Université libre de Bruxelles. Reference number: 104/2019:

Additional information

Funding

This research is funded by an international research project called LEarning with Tablets: Acceptance and COgnitive Processes (LETACOP: ANR-14-CE24-0032) financed by the French National Agency for Research (Agence Nationale de la Recherche [ANR]).

Notes on contributors

Jan Van der Linden

Jan Van der Linden is a postdoc researcher at the Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and the Research Center for Work and Consumer Psychology. His research interests concern smart device adoption, technology user experience, and the impact of technology excessive usage on well-being at work.

Catherine Hellemans

Catherine Hellemans is a Professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and member of the Research Centre for Work and Consumer Psychology. Her research projects focus on psychosocial risks at work, teleworking and well-being at work, and recognition at work.

Franck Amadieu

Franck Amadieu is a Professor at the Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès (France), and the CLLE Lab. His research interests concern the processes and cognitive requirements of new technologies for learning, and more generally cognitive psychology and Human Computer Interaction.

Emilie Vayre

Emilie Vayre is a Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at the Université Lumière-Lyon-2 (France) and member of the Social Psychology research group. His research interests concern the digital transformations in the context of training and work, new types of workspace and working arrangements.

Cécile van de Leemput

Cécile van de Leemput is a Professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and Director of the Research Centre for Work and Consumer Psychology. Her research projects focus on digitization processes and user experience (UX), the impact of smart technologies on human activities and on well-being at school and quality in higher education.