Nathalie Nahai - Naughty or nice? The psychology behind successful products

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@NATHALIENAHAITHE WEB PSYCHOLOGIST LTD.
NAUGHTY or NICE?
THE PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND
successful products

There’s an age-old battle that’s raging…

NAUGHTY

Win-Lose
Undermine customers’ goals for your benefit

Win-Lose
NICE

Win-Lose
Win-Win
Assist your customers to achieve their goals

The 3 battlefields

1 Conversion

1 Conversion
2 Adoption

1 Conversion
2 Adoption
3 Monetization

1
CONVERSION

CONVERSION
• Clicking a link

CONVERSION
• Clicking a link
• Watching a video

CONVERSION
• Clicking a link
• Leaving a comment

CONVERSION
• Clicking a link
• Signing up to a newsletter

CONVERSION
• Clicking a link
• Signing up to a newsletter
• Requesting a trial

You need to hack their decision-making

1 Induce a positive emotional state
2 Lower the cognitive load
3 Create an experience of fluency
INCREASING CONVERSIONS

Where thought conflicts with emotion,
the latter is designed by the neural
circuitry in our brains to win
INCREASING CONVERSIONS
“ ”R. Carter (1999) Mapping the Mind. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Which is why clever marketing like this works…

http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/newcastle-brown-ale-if-won-droga5-new-york/1300808

It disrupts expectations, makes you laugh, and only
brings in the product once you’re feeling good

COGNITIVE LOAD
“ ”Paas, F. G., & Van Merriënboer, J. J. (1994). Instructional control of cognitive load in the training of complex cognitive tasks. Educational psychology
review, 6(4), 351-371.
The load that performing a particular task
imposes on your cognitive system

COGNITIVE LOAD
The total amount of mental effort being
used in your working memory

We have a limited capacity for cognitive processing

To encourage conversion, lower the mental effort

http://www.bathstore.com/

http://kylerush.net/blog/meet-the-obama-campaigns-250-million-fundraising-platform/

PROCESSING FLUENCY
“ ”Alter, A. L., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2009). Uniting the tribes of fluency to form a metacognitive nation. Personality and social psychology review.
The ease with which people
process information

PROCESSING FLUENCY
• Conceptual: Semantic priming

PROCESSING FLUENCY
• Perceptual: Visual clarity

PROCESSING FLUENCY
• Perceptual: Visual clarity
• Linguistic: Simple language

https://www.optimizely.com/

Those are the principles...

- NAUGHTY -

https://www.vidyard.com/

INFLUENCING DECISIONS
• Video induces a positive emotional state

• 2 simple options lower cognitive load

• Simple options lower cognitive load
• It’s a fluent experience until…

Sure, they get the conversion BUT…

#RAGE

This is classic bait and switch

Here’s what you can do instead

- NICE -

https://www.headspace.com/

• Bright and friendly (positive emotional state)

-----------------
-----------------
https://www.headspace.com/

• Tasks chunked into steps (low cognitive load)

• Tasks chunked into steps (low cognitive load)
• Simple, clear design (high fluency)

So what are they doing right?

NICE
Using psychological principles to empower users
to achieve daunting but desired goal

2
ADOPTION

Successful products create habits

But these habits aren’t always empowering…

How do these products hook us in?

4.1

They activate our dopamine system

DOPAMINE
• Arvid Carlsson & Nils-Ake Hillarp (1958)
National Heart Institute of Sweden
Carlsson, A., & Hillarp, N. Å. (1958). On the state of the catechol amines of the adrenal medullary granules. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica,44(2), 163-169.

DOPAMINE
• Critical for mood, attention, motivation, thinking,
moving, sleeping

DOPAMINE
• Critical for mood, attention, motivation, thinking,
moving, sleeping
• Causes pleasure-seeking behavior

For example, post-conference drinks…

WANTING VS LIKING
Dopamine
“Wanting”

WANTING VS LIKING
Dopamine
“Wanting”
Take action

WANTING VS LIKING
Dopamine
“Wanting”
Opioid
“Liking”
Take action

WANTING VS LIKING
Dopamine
“Wanting”
Opioid
“Liking”
Take action
Feel satisfied

WANTING VS LIKING
Dopamine
“Wanting”
Opioid
“Liking”
Feel satisfied
Take action

BUT habitual products create dopamine loops

WANTING VS LIKING
Dopamine
“Wanting”
Take action
Opioid
“Liking”

WANTING VS LIKING
Dopamine
“Wanting”
Take action
Opioid
“Liking”
Feel satisfied

So what’s happening?

DOPAMINE LOOPS
1 We seek more than we’re satisfied

DOPAMINE LOOPS
2 Anticipating vs. receiving reward

DOPAMINE LOOPS
3 External triggers

DOPAMINE LOOPS
3 External triggers
4 Small rewards

DOPAMINE LOOPS
3 External triggers
4 Small rewards
5 Unpredictable

There is another way

Your product can create empowering habits

https://www.tunnelbear.com/

CREATE HABITS
• Offers clear, tangible benefits

CREATE HABITS
• Anthropomorphizes and delights

CREATE HABITS
• Simplifies a complex action

CREATE HABITS
• Creates a calm experience

CREATE HABITS
• Creates a calm experience
• Induces loss aversion

Once you’ve created a habit, how do you monetize it?

3
MONETIZATION

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/books/non_fiction/article1547012.ece

Most people sign up here, BUT if you dig deeper…

You’re not getting a 30 day ‘free’ (£1) trial

You’re not getting a 30 day ‘free’ (£1) trial
you’re signing up for covert subscription

The trouble is that convenience and urgency
often override rational consideration

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.supercell.clashofclans&hl=en

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ea.game.simcitymobile_row&hl=en

MONETIZATION
BetaBlog (2011). Roger Dickey's Tactics for Game Monetization:
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BetableBlog/20111129/90708/Roger_Dickeys_Tactics_for_Game_Monetization.php
They create ‘fun pain’ by making us wait in real time
(e.g. for our city / fortress to be built)

MONETIZATION
In Sim City, to solve this pain we need to buy ‘bliss’…
But how do we value ‘bliss’?

We can’t!
Instead we have to buy gems
(intermediate currency) in exchange for ‘bliss’
MONETIZATION

These products use intermediate currency

Adding just one intermediate currency between
consumers and real money reduces our ability
to assess the value of the transaction
MONETIZATION
Gabaix, X., & Laibson, D. (2004). Shrouded attributes and information suppression in competitive markets. National Bureau of Economic Research.

Allowing people to earn currency
(albeit very slowly) and offering bulk discounts
cloaks the true cost of playing
MONETIZATION

Other products use sneaky dynamic pricing

When you price items at a
level determined by a customer's
perceived ability to pay
DYNAMIC PRICING
“ ”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/15/uber-offers-free-rides-after-backlash-over-surge-pricing-during-sydney-siege

http://www.businessinsider.com/women-raises-362-to-pay-for-uber-ride-2014-11

http://www.skyscanner.com/

http://www.booking.com/

But dynamic pricing isn’t always bad

http://2015.meaningconference.co.uk/

https://www.debenhamsflowers.com/

You can also monetize by offering a free trial

And by being explicit about billing cycles

Whatever product you’re designing, there’s
one crucial point we have to remember

PERSUASION CONTINUUM

Facilitation

Facilitation
Persuasion

Facilitation
Persuasion
Coercion

Facilitation
Persuasion
Coercion
Manipulation

As product designers…

You are both the
ARCHITECTS & THE USERS
of our future tech

WHAT KIND OF WORLD
do you want to build?

@NathalieNahai
NathalieNahai.com
THANK YOU!

Nathalie Nahai - Naughty or nice? The psychology behind successful products

Nathalie Nahai - Naughty or nice? The psychology behind successful products

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