These are the full slides from my 3.5 hour workshops at UX Week 2015 - on how to design products that use behavioral economics and psychology to overcome obstacles and help users take action.
And that’s what we’re talking about today
Understand the decision making
process and potential behavioral
obstacles.
Discover the appropriate
behavioral intervention
and target audience.
Design the product or
communication, from concept
to implementation
Refine the products and materials
iteratively, using rigorous
experimental testing.
Image from Designing for Behavior Change
Timing: Time-based incentives can work
“...If you sign up by 7PM today,
you are eligible to win a free
iPad mini!”
“...If you are one of the first 100
people to sign up, you are
eligible to win a free iPad mini!”
7.5% clicked
9.6% clicked 13.1% clicked
See Balz and Wendel 2014
Today’s Path
1 Oh, so very limited
2 Obstacles we face
3 Three big strategies to overcome them
4 Exercise
So what’s a habit?
Adapted from ABC
Model (eg Miltenberger
2011) and Duhigg 2012
The Path Ahead
1 Structure the action
2 Design the environment
3 Prepare the user
4 Exercise
Write out the sequence of steps.
Make each step pleasant.
Straightforward. “Easy”.
Tailor it to their prior experiences.
Skip ahead where possible.
Take the garden path.
Structure the action:
Break down hard problems
Conceptual design: develop a story
How consumers progress from “just starting out” to “success!”
Customer experience map by Mel Edwards, desonance.wordpress.com
The Path Ahead
1 Structure the action
2 Design the environment
3 Prepare the user
4 Exercise
Help consumers see
and tell the story
of their successes.
Build on related,
positive experiences.
Educate consumers
about how to do
take action.
Prepare the person for the action
The Path Ahead
1 Take a break
2 A Bag of Tricks
3 Some Tips
4 Exercise
Techniques 1 2 3 4
Obstacle: Try This:
Cue Tell the Person What the Action Is
Make It Clear Where to Act
Clear the Page of Distractions
Reaction Make Site Beautiful and Professional
Deploy Social Proof
Display Strong Authority on the Subject
Be Authentic and Personal
Evaluation Prime Relevant Associations
Leverage Loss Aversion
Use Peer Comparisons
Run a Competition
Avoid Cognitive Overhead
Avoid Choice Overload
Avoid Direct Payments
Ability Elicit Implementation Intentions
Default Everything
Lessen Burden of Action and Information
Deploy (Positive) Peer Comparisons
Timing Frame text to avoid temporal myopia
Remind of prior commitment to act
Make it scarce
Use Defaults
(especially where engagement isn’t needed)
Employees
joining shortly
before Apr. 1st
Employees
joining shortly
after Apr. 1st
49%
86%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Opt In Opt Out
Madrian and Shea (2001)
Make sure they know they’ll succeed
5.5% clicked8.5% clicked
See Wendel and Balz 2014
Limited Time Offers Still Work
How can you create urgency?
“...If you sign up by 7PM today,
you are eligible to win a free
iPad mini!”
“...If you are one of the first 100
people to sign up, you are
eligible to win a free iPad mini!”
7.5% clicked
9.6% clicked 13.1% clicked
The Path Ahead
1 Take a break
2 A Bag of Tricks
3 Some Tips
4 Exercise
The Path Ahead
1 One Big Lesson
2 How Experiments Work
3 Fitting it Together: A Three-Step Process
4 Exercise
Hundreds of RCTs – Big and Small –
On Usage and Impact
“...If you sign up by
7PM today,
you are eligible to
win a free iPad mini!”
“...If you are one of
the first 100 people
to sign up, you are
eligible to win a free
iPad mini!”
1) Does the darned thing work?
Type of Test: an “Impact Test”
Version A: Do Nothing
Version B: Your Communication
2) Can we get anything to work better?
Type of Test: a “Kitchen Sink Test”
Version A: Current Underperforming Version
Version B: Your Best Shot, with everything
3) What fundamentally
resonates with our
readers more, X or Y?
Type of Test:
an “Archetype Test”
Version A: Everything is X
Version B: Everything is Y
4) What exactly
drives a result?
Type of Test:
“Isolated Intervention”
(Aka “Microscope Test”)
Version A: A baseline
communication
Version B: The exact
same communication,
with a single small
change