The document discusses persuasive design in the realm of web interactions, highlighting the necessity of engaging content that triggers emotional responses from potential customers. It emphasizes the importance of understanding users' motivations and barriers to effectively convert exploration into commitment through strategic content creation. The paper also distinguishes between traditional usability practices and new approaches that integrate emotional psychology to influence user behavior on organizational websites.

1. Proceedings of the German UP / Mensch u. Computer Conference, Berlin, September 2009
The science behind persuasive design: Capturing the
emotional triggers that transform exploration into action.
Kath Straub Arno Bublitz
Usability.ORG Human Factors International
Tucson, Arizona USA Hamburg, Germany
kath@usability.org arno.bublitz@humanfactors.com
Abstract
Today, interactions with prospective Once key emotional responses are Keywords
customers start on the web. This means understood, organizations can persuasive design, content, content
to be useful, a website must be more develop content and messaging strategy, information design,
than usable. It must also be engaging strategies which employ principles of Information mapping, trust, emotion
and persuasive, like a charismatic social psychology to amplifying
salesman. customers motivations and minimize
their concerns.
Persuasive designs do not „just happen“.
They are derived through rigorous By extending the traditional usability
research identifying the emotional methods into the domains of
triggers that drive a customer to commit emotional response and human
or fears that hinder a customer from decision making, designers can
acting. create content that transform
exploration into commitment.
10 From exploration to action
The role of organizational websites If you’ve ever encountered a “used from exploration to action results in
have morphed. Initially sites offered car salesman”, you know how this conversion.
“interactive” brochures, self-serve works.
To be effective today, websites need to
catalogs and print-it-yourself access to
1.1 Characteristics of good do the same thing.
reports from known sources. Today salesmen applied to websites
websites act as sales representative, 20 Designing persuasive websites
shaping the a customer’s first impression Good salesmen listen to learn
what customers want and needs as Creating persuasive designs extends
of the organization. And first impressions
part of the initial conversation. the domain of usability beyond the
count. Is the organization smart? Do they
website. Usability is still critically
understand my needs? Do they have my They explore peoples’ aspirations. important. Users must be able to execute
best interests in mind? Or is it all about But they also listen for their limits, key and frequent tasks easily and
the sale? Do I trust them? Do I want to their fears and their barriers to efficiently. But as the role of the web has
do business with them? commitment. Good salesmen then expanded within the broader
Impression formation is fast. But it is also shape the conversation to amplify the communication strategy, success criteria
complex. Information that is not relevant customer’s desire and need to for the website has expanded. Today,
often creeps into the impression engage, explaining why the product effective websites influence beliefs and
formation process For instance, in will fulfill their needs, improve their change behaviors.
situations where there is a real status and/or demonstrate their good
taste . The best salesmen recognize 2.1 How persuasion interviews differ
salesman, my first impression of the
salesman influences my impression of that is also important to assess and In usability research, we seek to
the organization Does this person know address potential customer’s articulate and design to the user’s mental
his products/services? Is he (not just reservations. Through a subtle model as they complete a journey. This
listening to, but) hearing me? How combination of assurance and social means asking participants to describe
scripted pressured is our interaction? Is pressure salesmen shift the what they are doing and why along the
he diagnosing my needs and creating the customers beliefs and, by extension way. Essentially participants “ watch”
right package? Or just looking for an their behavior. This transformation themselves act, and providing a play by
upsell? play for those actions. The actions are
1

2. concrete and the descriptions are corresponding to the two levels of
objective. Even so, usability interviews commitment, which must be
Join
can be challenging. Users tend to drift addressed separately in the content.
down to describing their experience of This link leads users to information about
1) Am I convinced that this
the action rather than the actions how to joint the organization and the
product/services meets my
themselves (see Figure 1.) benefits that members enjoy. The single
needs? Does it fulfill a need or
word “join” clearly describes what user
reduce a drive?
can do in section of the site. To that end,
2) Am I convinced that this is the it is a very usable link. Motivated joiners
right organization for me to do will have no difficulty understanding how
business with? Do I trust them? and where to join on this site. But the
Will they help me know/do what role of the web today is not to service
is best for me? users motivated to convert on a known
product from a known firm. Rather it is to
In today’s web communication space,
motivate new customers to explore, tip
both are necessary and neither alone
Figure 1. Levels of description for the and commit.
customer experience is sufficient. Most organizations know
how to “sell” their products online-- As such, the usable link fails to “sell” the
they have been doing that for years. content in that site section which, in turn,
Fewer organizations know how to sell sells the professional society to
Persuasion design interviews are very
themselves. In the real world, a explorers. Consider this alternative:
different. While there may be a series of
salesman strikes up a conversation
topics to explore, there is typically no Why join?
with a prospective customer and,
specific script of questions to follow.
within that conversation, explores This link is more persuasive because it
Discovery flows via guided explorations
motivations and barriers to conveys the information value of content
of the participants’ experiences the
commitment. He then reshapes his in this section: learn about the benefits of
emotions that occur beneath and before
pitch to address those emotions in membership. Framed as a question (and
behaviors and decisions.
real time. providing an answer), it feels more
Precursor feelings are often difficult for conversational that could provide the
But the web is not real time. So
participants to access or articulate. right information to tip users toward
accomplishing a similar ‘pitch’ in the
Keeping participants at this level of action.
web space means understanding
description often entails laddering,
enough about your consumer Now consider the third example:
pressuring participants to forge into
segments to predict their motivations
areas of self exploration. (It is important Why I joined
and commitment challenges to design
to note the difference between describing
that conversation. This final link applies principles of the
emotional but visible responses to
social psychology of influence to make
experiences and describing abstract
the call to action mostengaging. “Why I
feelings that drive beliefs and behaviors.)
30 From copy to persuasive joined” conveys that the content includes
Persuasive interviews force participants content testimonials in addition to simple
into (often somewhat uncomfortable) self The last step in creating descriptions of the benefits. Testimonials
discovery. (See level 3 in Figure1.) persuasive copy is to apply the social demonstrate that other people (ideally
Participants will tend to drift back up to psychology of influence to encourage people similar others) find membership
describing their experiences rather than users to take action. valuable. This type of evidence, called
the emotions surrounding it. Managing Social Proof, helps users short-cut the
this level of interview requires an Historically the web has been about evaluation-to-decision process based on
experienced, empathetic interviewer getting things done .To that end, calls the logic that if other similar people join, it
capable of gently pushing participants to action on the web have traditionally must be a sensible thing to do.
beyond their comfort zone while been about actions. Supporting that
goal, best practices have stipulated 40 From copy to persuasive content
effectively managing any emotional
discovery. product/services itself. that the calls to action (or link names) Just as with usability, designing
Therapeutic interview training and should be verbs. effective content is a two part process.
experience is helpful. In persuasive design, describing the First you need to understand your users
action is not sufficient. It is also emotions, aspirations and fears. Then
important to convey the benefits you need to design content—or
2.2 Applying the findings to the conferred by the action. Consider this conversation-- to anticipate and address
message/content strategy those emotions. Within the design stage,
example from a prominent
After analysis, persuasion interviews international professional society social psychology strategies can be
describe a set of prioritized emotional website site: applied to amplify emotions, driving
themes that must be addressed through consumers toward commitment and
engaging copy. The themes action.
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3. 3