A lightning talk I gave at Camusability in November 2014 about what I learned from a UX Cambridge session by Alastair Somerville

1. Richard Hare
1 Thing I learned
Cambridge
UX CAM 2014

2. Breaking The
Bank
learning from
casinos about
interaction, habits
and the future of
neuroergonomic
UX design
Alastair
Somerville

3. Why do people gamble?

5. 1. Trigger
 External triggers: email or website link
 As soon as users no longer need an
external alert, a habit – powered internally
– has been formed.

6. 2. Action

7. 3. Variable Rewards

8. Variable rewards
 Rewards of the tribe
 Rewards of the hunt
 Rewards of the self

9. B.F. Skinner
 “positive reinforcement
results in lasting
behavioral
modification”
 “punishment changes behavior only
temporarily and has many
detrimental side-effects”

11. So why do people gamble?
“...dopamine levels in our brains vary the
most in situations where we are unsure if
we are going to be rewarded, such as
when we are gambling or playing the
lottery.”

12. Summary
UI enables individual habits
UX enables social interaction

13. Conclusion
“You are not designing a
screen, you are designing
social events”

14. References
Want to hook your users? Drive them crazy (An intro to variable rewards)
http://www.nirandfar.com/2012/03/want-to-hook-your-users-drive-them-crazy.html
It's a gamble: dopamine levels tied to uncertainty of rewards
http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2004/05/its-a-gamble-dopamine-levels-tied-to-uncertainty-of-rewards-59664/
Why are variable rewards addictive?
http://www.quora.com/Why-are-variable-rewards-addictive
Book review: “Hooked - How To Build Habit Forming Products”
http://marcabraham.wordpress.com/2014/06/21/book-review-hooked-how-to-build-habit-forming-products/