Exploring the User Needs and Experiences of Bangladeshi Smartphone Users

Abstract

In this modern age, almost everybody uses smartphones, and users look for a smooth and pleasurable User Experience. In developing or underdeveloped countries, such as, Bangladesh, people do not earn a huge amount of money compared to the developed countries of Europe or North America, and most of the consumers will think a lot before buying a smartphone. So, these people do not have the capability of changing smartphones frequently, and they hope that a smartphone will last for a longer period of time and will provide them with an excellent User Experience. This was the motivating factor for conducting this research. In this research, the user needs and expectations of Bangladeshi smartphone users, whether their needs and expectations are fulfilled or not, and as a result, what kind of User Experience and satisfaction they are getting, etc. is investigated. By combining all of these aspects together, the goal of this research is to explore the user needs and experiences of Bangladeshi smartphone users.

In this research, data has been collected through user surveys from 11 Bangladeshi smartphone users who are living in Bangladesh and 11 Bangladeshi smartphone users who are living in developed countries. Bangladeshi smartphone users who are living in developed countries have experience using both - smartphones that are available in Bangladesh, as well as smartphones that are available in developed countries. The reason for including Bangladeshi smartphone users who are living in developed countries in this research is to understand if there are any notable differences between the user needs and expectations, challenges users are facing, and, as a result, what kind of User Experience and satisfaction, the users from both of these user groups are getting. The surveys were created with open ended questions and in a way that users can share their experiences with sufficient explanations. Qualitative data has been collected through the surveys. Thematic analysis has been used to analyse these qualitative data.

The findings show that, there are some similarities between the two user groups. For example, participants from both user groups use their smartphones to complete similar tasks. In addition, the types of issues they are facing, and their user needs and expectations are pretty much the same. However, Bangladeshi smartphone users who are living in developed countries are facing fewer issues compared to Bangladeshi smartphone users who are living in Bangladesh. Surprisingly enough, some issues are only faced by Bangladeshi smartphone users who are living in Bangladesh. For example, “Green line on the display” issue. It was also being reported by one participant who is living in Bangladesh, that with every software update, the previous phone of the user became progressively slower. In addition, according to another participant who is living in Bangladesh, his expectation towards the smartphone is impacted by the smartphone price. Due to the cost, this participant has lower expectations and believes that he is receiving excellent value for his money when it comes to the service and the User Experience of his smartphone. Another interesting finding is, the previous smartphones that some Bangladeshi smartphone users who are living in Bangladesh had used a few years ago, had offered a highly satisfying User Experience, and those phones had a five to eight years’ lifespan. Finally, even though some issues exist, as long as their smartphones provide good performance and other features function well, most of the Bangladeshi smartphone users who are living in Bangladesh consider that they are getting a good User Experience and they feel satisfied using their smartphones.

Very little research has been conducted in the underdeveloped or developing countries like Bangladesh to discover the user needs and experiences of the smartphone users. Even though this thesis has been conducted on a very small scale and the contribution of this thesis is very small, we assume that this research will help understanding the smartphone users of underdeveloped or developing countries like Bangladesh. Also, it will eventually improve our knowledge about user behaviour, motivate to maintain the highest standards in design, and finally will add these knowledges to the ongoing research of User Experience. We also expect that User Experience designers or smartphone manufacturing companies can get insights about user needs and expectations and, the overall User Experience and satisfaction that Bangladeshi smartphone users are getting from this research, and this research can also guide possible future researchers who would want to conduct this kind of research in any underdeveloped or developing countries in the future.