Presentation from User Experience Professional Association (UXPA) Boston 2014 conference on self-determination theory, motivational design, and applying these concepts to your digital product to motivate and engage users.
2. Agenda
• Self-determination theory: Overview
• Competence: Helping people grow
• Autonomy: Helping people choose
• Relatedness: Helping people connect
• Tying it all together
Amy Bucher, Ph.D. (amy.bucher@gmail.com)
4. Amy Bucher, Ph.D. (amy.bucher@gmail.com)
“It’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I just don’t care.”
5. Amy Bucher, Ph.D. (amy.bucher@gmail.com)
SelfEfficacy
Social Learning
Hierarchy of Needs
6. Amy Bucher, Ph.D. (amy.bucher@gmail.com)
Types of Motivation: Self Determination
Theory
AutonomousControlled
More likely to sustain
behavior change
Adapted from Segar & Hall (2011) Source: Ryan & Deci (2000)
22. Amy Bucher, Ph.D. (amy.bucher@gmail.com)
2xweight loss in people who track food
6+ days per week vs. people who track
less than 11
1. Hollis, J. F. et al. (2008). Weight loss during the intensive intervention phase of the weight-loss maintenance trial. American Journal of
Preventative Medicine, 32(5), 118-126.
2. Kruger, J., Blanck, H. M., & Gillespie, C. (2006). Dietary and physical activity behaviors among adults successful at weight loss maintenance.
International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 3.
3. Bravata, D. M., et al. (2007). Using pedometers to increase physical activity and improve health: A systematic review. Journal of the
American Medical Association, 298(19), 2296-2304.
18%of successful dieters kept a calorie
diary, vs. 8% of unsuccessful dieters2
People using pedometers keep their
physical activity at 27%above baseline
levels3
23. Opower.com
1.4 – 3.3% energy use reduction per household (Alcott, 2011)
Amy Bucher, Ph.D. (amy.bucher@gmail.com)
24. Amy Bucher, Ph.D. (amy.bucher@gmail.com)
How Video
Games Support
Competence
31. Amy Bucher, Ph.D. (amy.bucher@gmail.com)
$26
Million
in first year1
1. http://news.starbucks.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=598, retrived October 1, 2012
32. Amy Bucher, Ph.D. (amy.bucher@gmail.com)
J&J Digital Health Scorecard http://www.digitalhealthscorecard.com/?sf7635864=1
45. ELIZA
Human: My boyfriend made me come here.
ELIZA: Your boyfriend made you come here?
Human: He says I’m depressed.
ELIZA: I’m sorry to hear you are depressed.
Human: It’s true. I’m unhappy.
ELIZA: Do you think talking to me will help you
not be unhappy?
Amy Bucher, Ph.D. (amy.bucher@gmail.com)
Weizenbaum, J. (1966). ELIZA—A computer program for the study of natural language
communication between man and machine. Communications of the ACM, 9(1), 36-45.
52. SDT Applied to Beer
Amy Bucher, Ph.D. (amy.bucher@gmail.com)
53. Additional Resources
Amy Bucher, Ph.D. (amy.bucher@gmail.com)
Glued to Games, by Scott Rigby and Richard Ryan
selfdeterminationtheory.org links to academic papers, research
Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab (
http://captology.stanford.edu/)
I also like:
•Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini
•Willpower, by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney
•The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and in Business, by Charles
Duhigg
From this presentation:
Easiest metaphor to understand autonomy is choose your own adventure
Here’s an example from Mindbloom—users can determine at the outset what parts of their well-being they’d like to work on. And they can change their minds at any point in the program.
What does ability really mean? Sometimes it’s truly having the skills, knowledge, or tools; other times, it’s having a resource such as time, patience, or desire.
Fogg definition of ability
Willpower
Another way to create a sense of ability or competence is through normative feedback—what others like you are doing.
Opower launched a normative feedback program for energy consumption. People participating in the program got a neighborhood report showing how much energy others in the area were using. People who participated ended up using significantly less energy than people who didn’t get the comparison report—about 1.4-3.3% less per measurement period. That may not seem like a lot for any one individual, but when you think about the energy savings across a neighborhood or city, it starts to really add up.
We also use normative feedback a lot with health related behaviors. For example, did you know that most people who successfully quit smoking have failed about 7 times before?
Use of positive/hopeful feedback vs. unrealistic or lofty feedback
Feedback on performance builds competence
The granularity of feedback also matters. Ideally, you want to give a few levels of feedback. Here in Guitar Hero, you see both feedback on each individual action, and cumulative feedback on overall performance over the course of the game
Used in Europe to reduce messes in men’s restrooms
Kip Williams
Amazon—recommends products both based on what you purchased, and on what people like you have bought
Design needs to respond to users, too. When a user does something with the mouse, the site should respond to that.