The impact of expectation and disconfirmation on user experience and behavior intention

Abstract

Satisfaction and behavior intention are crucial elements of system and product success, and are also positive results of user experience (UX). Most existing UX studies focus on perception aspects, and employ models with linear and symmetric assumptions. Expectation-confirmation theory (ECT) points out that people’s expectation and confirmation/disconfirmation are vital factors in generating satisfaction. Moreover, the prospect theory (PT) describes people’s asymmetric attitude to positive and negative disconfirmation. Based on ECT and PT, the current study proposed hypotheses to explore how users’ expectation and disconfirmation affect their satisfaction and behavior intention, as well as the asymmetric impact of different valenced disconfirmation. The hypotheses were tested using data from a retrospective designed e-banking application UX study. Results show that both utility and emotion expectations and their disconfirmation impact user satisfaction and behavior intention. The disconfirmations show negative asymmetric impacts. Besides, satisfaction mediates the impact of expectation and disconfirmation on behavior intention, and it also moderates the asymmetric impact of disconfirmation. Apart from the limitations, conclusions from this study confirmed the application potential of ECT and PT in future UX researches.