APR Flash Card: Characteristics Promoting Adoption

In grad school, I was fascinated with adoption theory. It's really interesting (no really!), and you can read more about it here. It also makes an appearance on the APR exam. Here's the first of three flash cards on adoption.

Category: Theory
Front: 5 Characteristics Promoting Adoption

Back:

• Relative Advantage-does this innovation do something better than what I am already using?
• Compatibility-does it fit in with my current activities/needs/life
• Trial-ability-is it easy to experiment with it? Can I try it out?
• Observability-can I see other people use it? How does it work for them?
• Complexity-how hard is it to understand/learn/implement?

Think about the latest gadget or activity you really bought into. Maybe it was a different cell phone or a fancy kitchen gizmo. Chances are, several of these characteristics had to come together before you really adopted whatever it was.

For me personally, I find relative advantage and trial-ability are often the most important. Does it work better than what I already have, and is it easy to test it out before I commit.

Which of these characteristics is most important to you?