A Fuzzy Cognitive Map for Identifying User Satisfaction from Smartphones

Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) is an efficient knowledge representation and reasoning method, which is based on human knowledge and experience. In this work, a FCM model is constructed to represent users' perceptions of satisfaction from Information Technology (IT) products, such as smart phones. A set of key factors, related with smart phone characteristics and functionalities, was first derived from the literature to construct the FCM model. Then, a questionnaire was disseminated to a number of randomly selected (current/potential) smart phone users. Users' preferences were converted into fuzzy numbers representing the degree of satisfaction, as it was expressed by individual users, from each corresponding factor. Strengths of causal relationships between factors were specified by calculating similarities/dissimilarities between these fuzzy numbers. The produced FCM indicates the smart phone functionalities and trade-offs which influence more the perceived user satisfaction.