1. Designing for behaviour change
Phil Barrett
Director
Flow Interactive South Africa
A few techniques

2. Flickr:HeatherHopkins/ClevergrrlFlickr:Mel/Karamellzucker
Flickr:DarrenTunnicliff/ĐāżŦ{mostlyabsent}
Flickrr:Etolane
Remove the negative posts:
people post more positive stuff.
Facebook manipulated 689,003
users’ emotions for science
Flickr:quantumbunny
Remove the positive posts:
people post more negative stuff.

3. “I am worried about the ability of Facebook and
others to manipulate people’s thoughts […]
If people are being thought-controlled in this
kind of way, there needs to be protection and
they at least need to know about it.
Jim Sheridan, MP
Member of Commons Media Select committee

4. Facebook’s real motives
Facebook wants you to use Facebook more.
Facebook always builds a user’s feed by compiling “the content they will find most relevant
and engaging.”
Facebook has built a behaviour in users: Smartphone users check Facebook 14 times a day.
…keeping us
on Facebook!

5. Computers can change people’s behaviour

6. …So can TV, Radio, Books, Speeches, Posters,
Games, Smells, Conversations, Balloons…

7. Behaviour-change is the
measurable outcome of UX work

8. “Behaviour
is our medium.
Robert Fabricant
Frog Design

9. Sustained behaviour change.
Creating an itch that people want to keep on scratching
HayDay:Agreatgameonfacebook.Playitnow!

10. And what about in the real world?
Exercise more, eat
better, save for
retirement, recycle, use
less electricity, volunteer
to help a charity, spend
more time with the kids…
Flickr:ElAlvi/alvi2047

11. Mindbloom
Fitbit
Do these kinds of things work?
A show of hands…

12. What kinds of behaviour change
can we hope to achieve?
What techniques can we use?
Flickr:JackKeane/whatknot

13. These are helping
Sebastian Deterding
CodingConduct.cc

14. Get people to take an action
Exploit mental quirks to persuade
Build habits
Design a compelling behavioural plan
Cheat
Flickr:JackKeane/whatknot

15. CONCEPT 1
Getting people to take
action is hard

16. “
BJ Fogg,
Professor of Persuasive Tech
Stanford University
Three elements must
converge at the same
moment for a behavior
to occur: Motivation,
Ability, and Trigger.
Easy to doHard to do
Low
motivation
High
motivation
No action:
Triggers fail here
Ability
Motivation
Action!
Triggers succeed here

17. Easy to doHard to do
Low
motivation
High
motivation
No action:
Triggers fail here
Action!
Triggers succeed here
Ability
Motivation
More
compelling
Less effort

18. Fogg’s motivation factors
Attain Avoid
Pleasure Pain
Hope Fear
Social acceptance Social rejection

19. Even harder: Behaviour change funnel
Execute action
CUE
REACTION
EVALUATION
ABILITY
TIMING
Distractions
Distractions
Distractions
Distractions
Distractions
Doesn’t notice
Negative reaction
Cost > benefit
Can’t act
No urgency
CREATE action funnel

20. CONCEPT 2
You can exploit mental quirks
to get a more positive reaction

21. “System 1” “System 2”
Automatic vs deliberate thinking
• Does the job properly but uses a
lot of glucose.• Substitutes easy questions for hard ones
• Believes things that are easy to believe
• Operates using habits

22. System 2
System 1
Flickr:Thomas/Infidelic

23. Exploiting system 1: some examples
§ Free stuff. People make irrational decisions when
things are free.
§ Loss aversion: People are more motivated by
avoiding a loss than by acquiring a similar gain. If the
same choice is framed as a loss, rather than a gain,
people will behave differently.
§ Ikea effect: We value things we have made more
highly.
§ Social proof: Everyone else is doing it, so it must be
a good thing.

24. People behave strangely when things are free

25. Framing a choice as a loss makes it less popular
Imagine that the US is preparing for the
outbreak of a lethal flu, which is
expected to kill 600 people. Choose a
program to address the problem.
!
a) 200 people will be saved
!
b) 1/3rd chance that 600 people will be
saved. 2/3rd chance that no people will
be saved.
72%

26. Framing a choice as a loss makes it less popular
Imagine that the US is preparing for the
outbreak of a lethal flu, which is
expected to kill 600 people. Choose a
program to address the problem.
!
a) 400 people will die.
!
b) 1/3rd that no-one will die. 2/3rd
chance that 600 people will die.
22%

27. The IKEA effect.
With origami frogs.
They were hard to make and most people did a bad job.
How much would people bid for their own frogs?
And the frogs of others? And expert -made frogs?
Flickr:ToddJordan/Tojosan

28. We become attached to the things we make.
• Average bid for expert-made frog: 27¢
• Average bid for own frog: 23¢
• Average bid by someone else for that same frog: ¢5c
Flickr:Nanimo

29. What’s this one?
And this one?

30. CONCEPT 3
For sustained behaviour change
you need to create habits

31. Habits let system 2
offload much of the day’s
effort onto system 1.
Create a habit, and the action can
be performed many times without
conscious thought from the rider.
Flickr:Thomas/Infidelic

32. Habit loop
Icons made by Icons8 from flaticon.com
Cue
Routine
Reward
triggers
provides
becomes associated with…

33. Habit loop: key details
Cue must be clear, unambiguous,
single-purpose.
User must be motivated and able to do
the routine.
User must know about the reward, want it
and get it immediately after the routine.

34. Rewards

35. “Promising a reward for an activity
is tantamount to declaring that
the activity is not worth doing for
its own sake.
Remove the reward and the behaviour stops

36. But in the
commercial
world, rewards
don’t have to
stop.

37. Variable reward
Variability causes
increased levels
of dopamine, the
neurotransmitter
that drives us to
search for
rewards.

38. Types of reward
TribeHunt Self

40. Old habits never die.
But sometimes you can get past them.
• Avoid the cue
• Replace the routine
• Get people to think about the habit
• Mindfulness
• Crowd out the old habit with new
behaviour

41. CONCEPT 4
Design a behaviour plan that helps
people build ability and stay motivated

42. Behavioural plan*
Get shoes Decide route Set date 1st run!
Expensive Not sure of
right distance
Feels unfamiliar
Can’t commit
Might forget
or chicken out
*AKA Customer journey

43. Behavioural plan*
Get shoes Decide route Set date 1st run!
Expensive Not sure of
right distance
Feels unfamiliar
Can’t commit
Might forget
or chicken out
*AKA Customer journey
Suggest distance
Suggest route
Social proof
Social proof
Behavioural bridge
Reminder
Commitment contract
Target/goal
Social proof
Behavioural bridge

44. Learn from game design!

45. We don’t need no stinkin’ badges
Adding points and badges does not make a bad game fun.

46. 7 principles of good games
• Clear, worthwhile goal
• Clear, bite-sized actions and choices
• Clear action-goal relations
• Clear status
• Lots of positive feedback
• Scaffolded challenges
• Social comparison

47. Ingredients for a state of Flow
• Clear goal: You know what you’re trying to achieve
• Rapid Feedback: Visibility of distance to go and of motion
towards the goal
• Challenge/mastery: You have to play better over time if you
want to win
Skills
Challenge
Anxiety
Boredom
Flow

48. A state of “Flow”
• Optimal performance
• Intense focus and concentration
• Time flies by
• Feels good
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Author of Flow

49. Epic meaning: Real or imaginary

50. Epic meaning: Real or imaginary

51. Epic meaning: Real or imaginary

52. Lots of positive feedback
Peggle

53. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Scaffolded challenges
Small challenges building to bigger ones.
Social, hunt and intrinsic rewards.

54. Like in Plants vs Zombies

55. Make the behaviour more challenging,
not the interface
Sebastian Deterding,
Just add points?

56. CONCEPT 5
Cheat

57. Choice architecture
In some situations you can make a
lasting impact by choosing a positive
default and allowing people to opt out.

58. “Employees did not have to spend time choosing a savings rate
and an asset allocation; they could just tick a yes box for
participation. As a result, participation rates jumped from 9
percent to 34 percent.
People really do want to join the plan, and if you dig a channel
for them to slide down that removes the seemingly tiny
barriers that are getting in their way, the results can be quite
dramatic.”
Cheat for pension sign-up

59. Cheat for organ donation
Austria Germany
99% registered donors 12% registered donors
Opt in on
driving
licence
application
Opt out
on driving
licence
application

60. Libertarian paternalism
In unfamiliar and complex situations
where people often make the wrong
choice, it’s best to make a choice for
them but important to allow them the
freedom to do what they want.

61. To create sustained
behaviour change
!
• Be realistic: it’s hard!
• Exploit mental quirks to
persuade
• Build habits
• Design a compelling
behavioural plan
• Cheat

62. Thanks!
Phil Barrett
@philbuktoo
@Flow_SA
www.userexperience.co.za