The Kano Model of customer satisfaction describes how product or service attributes work in different categories and influence satisfaction. There are "must" criteria, the fulfillment of which is taken for granted and the non-fulfillment of which inevitably leads to dissatisfaction. There are also "performance features" where satisfaction increases in proportion to fulfillment, as well as "attractive" or "delight features" that go beyond actual expectations and lead to particularly positive reactions.

Using the Kano model, it is possible to measure and compare customer satisfaction. This is very helpful if you want to check whether UX and marketing activities pay off, i.e. have the desired effect.

However, the aggregation of the individual parameters is not trivial, since, for example, the non-fulfillment of a basic requirement has different consequences than the absence of an excitement feature.

If basic requirements are not met or are only partially met, this leads to high dissatisfaction - even if attractive excitement requirements are present - because the customer takes the fulfillment of basic requirements for granted.

 

The diagram shows three curves: must criteria, performance features and delight features. On the left, customer satisfaction in the unfulfilled state – on the right, in the fulfilled state.

Satisfaction by meeting customer expectations. The Kano model distinguishes between the central basic requirements and the performance and excitement or delight features to which customers respond in a particularly positive manner. Using an airline as an example, one feature from each category is presented here as an example. A basic requirement would be, for example, that luggage is not lost. Its fulfillment is taken for granted and does not lead to an increase in satisfaction, but its non-fulfillment has a particularly negative effect. In contrast, the non-fulfillment of an delight feature has no negative effect, but when it is fulfilled, it has a particularly positive effect.

 

Origin

The model was presented by the Japanese management researcher Noriaki Kano in the 1980s and quickly spread.

  • Kano, N. (1984). Attractive Quality and Must-be Quality. The Journal of the Japanese Society for Quality Control, 14(2), 39–48.

Application in UX and UI design

In UX and UI design, the Kano Model can be used by designers to classify various features of a digital application according to their influence on user satisfaction.

The first step is to identify the 'must-have factors' and ensure that they function reliably – for example, a smooth ordering process or barrier-free navigation. These features are assumed by users and their absence or malfunction would at least significantly impair the User experience, if not make the application completely unusable.

"Performance features", such as fast loading times or flexible filter options, in turn ensure a proportional increase in satisfaction. The more user-friendly these are implemented, the higher the user satisfaction.

Finally, "Attractive features" are unexpected extras that positively surprise users – such as reminder and personalization functions or intelligent assistants that proactively provide relevant information.

However, some excitement features can lose their value over time: what is exciting at first becomes a standard that is taken for granted later on. Critics therefore point out that the Kano Model only represents a snapshot and that customer expectations can change very dynamically.

A practical example of its application would be a music streaming service: the trouble-free retrieval of songs is one of the "must" criteria, while personalized playlists represent a performance feature and real-time analyses of listening habits, which lead to intriguing recommendations, can be added as an exciting extra.

Impact on the User Experience

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Further information