Article

The Kano Model

Interaction Design Foundation Free Beginner

Kano gives you a vocabulary for why exciting features can mislead you: delighters add satisfaction, but missing basics (reliability, honouring what you promised) actively create anger. It shows that a broken basic hurts more than a shiny delighter helps. That is the model behind treating reliability as non negotiable and exciting as optional.

  • Basic expectations, when broken, cause outsized anger
  • Exciting delighters add satisfaction but never cover a broken basic
  • Reliability is a must have, not a nice to have

The question it answers

  1. What is a sane way to prioritise between fixing bugs, paying customer promises, and building the exciting new thing?

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