Applying Behavior Design

Chris Risdon @chrisrisdonSXSW 2012

or Behavior: you’re soaking in it.

#sxbehavior #behavior

I've been a workaday practitioner for close to 15 years. While I've done a lot of design research, I don't have a background in academic research. A lot of people, much, much smarter than me, have created the foundation for this topic. What I’ve been motivated to do the past 3–4 years is to understand how all that we’re learning about designing for behavior change and persuasive technology translates practically to my work designing products and services today.

What are we talking about?Why now?Where does it live?How do we apply it?

Applying Behavior Design

I’m taking a reporter’s angle with this topic - What, Why, Where and How.

What is Behavior Design?What is persuasive technology?

Behavior Design: 2009The next big thing.

While this topic is nothing new, 2009 was when it hit a tipping point in our profession, becoming a more prominently discussed, defined and illustrated.

Nine Experiences for 2009

—Brandon Shauer

“Whether it’s to extend your paycheck or conserve your energy, there’s plenty of reasons for people to change how they behave this year.”

“Behavior is our medium.”

—Robert Fabricant, 2009

Every design decision influences the user.(however benevolent the intent)

A long standing belief that I’ve held as a designer since I started in the 90s.

“Life as it is.”—Dziga Vertov

Documentary filmmaking is an analogy I’ve often used. Long considered the “objective” form of cinema, in contrast to fictional, scripted and reenacted films. However, the moment you “frame” a story with constraints (for example tell a story in 2 hours that played out over 2 years), you make decisions; where the filmmaker points the camera, how they edit the story, all these decision affect how the view receives—perceives and understands—the story. Interaction design is no different.

DTDT

Behavior Design (short for designing for behavior change)

Design with the intent to change someone’s behavior or attitude.

Persuasive TechnologyTechnology designed to persuade the user to use a system or platform in a desired way. (may/may not have intent to change someone’s behavior or attitude)

Unofficial!

These are unofficial definitions that may differ from academic thinking. This represents my synthesis and understand and how I’ve chosen to make sense of them in the context of my work.

BJ Fogg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/netliferesearch/2867937570/

90999

2004: During a layover you’re sitting at the airport bar having a beer. On the news you see reporting about the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Your heart goes out. It’s not personal - you don’t know anyone, and it’s halfway around the world. But the story understandably creates sympathy. In the news story there’s a call to action to donate money to the redcross.org.

To do this, you may need to take your flight, get home, remember that you wanted to donate, then go through traditional ecommerce funnel, providing billing address and credit card details. Then you also have to think, “how much do I want to donate?”

You have to be fairly motivated to follow-through and donate.

90999

2010: During a layover you’re sitting at the airport bar having a beer. On the news you see reporting about the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Your heart goes out. It’s not personal - you don’t know anyone, and it’s in another part of the world. But the story understandably creates sympathy. In the news story there’s a call to action to donate money to the Red Cross by texting “Haiti” to 90999. $10 will be added to your phone bill.

You pull out your phone there at the bar (it can even be a feature phone), type 90999, and “Haiti”, hit send, and you’re done. No billing, and it’s just $10. And you feel good about helping out.

Opportune Moments

We can see these “triggers” at other opportune moments. How about when you go to the pet store and buy pet supplies? The POS credit card swiper asks if you want to add $1 to your charge to help animal shelters. You’re already spending $50, what’s $51? And you’ll feel good about donating, since you do love animals.

Would they be just as successful if they gave you a flyer that made the case to donate and asked you to get online and donate an unspecified amount?

But modeling the relationship between motivation and ability have been around for a while. Reducing friction, making something easier to facilitate moving motivated people forward. Marketers and businesses have been trying to crack this code for a long time.

RobertCialdini

Robert Cialdini wrote Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion in the 90s, and not in the context of technology...

ReciprocityCommitment & ConsistencySocial ProofAuthorityLikingScarcity

...yet his “6 weapons of influence” are more pervasive than ever in our digital products and services.

Dan Ariely

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billhr/3266119190/

Predictably Irrational

The Upside of Irrationality

Let’s say I have a half a box of chocolates open here in front of you. I will give you this half box of chocolates now, or I will a full box of chocolates in a week. Most people will select the half box of chocolates now.

If you ask if they want a half box of chocolates in a month, or a full box in a month and one week, they will be able to think rationally and select the full box.

Active Design is the idea that we can design...buildings to encourage people to get more exercise...

By attacking obesity through urban design and architecture, governments are beginning to realize that designers might be their best warriors in the battle against obesity and its costs.

“”—Fast Company

Active Design

Active Design are guidelines by the city in conjunction with architects and urban planning academics.

This strategy recognizes that the public’s underlying motivations are not about health, but rather, about what is convenient and enjoyable.“ ”

Active Design

—Fast CompanyThese examples reinforce the fact that we, as designers, are not simply designing for cognition – or to support behavior.

Dan LocktonDesign with IntentStephen AndersonMental Note CardsFabriqueInsights

Lots of patterns and heuristics that can be used for idiation. This has just been the tip of the iceberg, we could spend the whole talk as a survey of behavior design thinking. But this is just meant to make things more concrete so we have a common frame of reference.

So why now?(or why 2009?)

Data

The utility and pervasiveness of data has grown. When considering products and services that are utilized to change personal behavior, data is the raw material that everything is based on.

Feedback Loops

The feedback loop, the response or feedback someone gets when they interact with a system—a core interaction design principle. The idea that as people ‘interact’ with a system through tracking their behaviors, it’s the feedback loop, they response they get from the system (cue’s, visualizations, etc.) with the data that tells the story.

Data > Information > Knowledge

The “Knowledge Hierarchy”

Data > Visualization > Story

Another way to look at it, in the context of our new products and features.

Passive data collection (or reduced to a few taps—i.e. the check-in), enables the feedback loop. The cycle of data collection to feedback is realtime - which didn’t exist in a mass produced scale prior to circa 2007.

Our behaviors write the story. Our actions create data, that data is visualized over time to tell a story. We have an emotional response to this story that influences how we will continue to ‘write the story’ with future behaviors.

We’ve been mapping data over time to visualize information and tell stories for a long time. But now technology has opened a floodgate in it’s ability to collect the data at a mass scale for consumers/individuals, and the ability to provide the feedback loop enables people to act on that information.

http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/posters

20 years ago, you had to manually enter your transactions. Scanning and looking at your purchases was the feedback loop. Manual entry was the collection of the data. You had to be highly motivated to maintain this and use it to influence your spending behavior (remember the Fogg model)

Spreadsheets came along, made it easier to scan over time, sort for different information, but the “story” was still not easily digestible and you had to be highly motivated to do this.

In the 90s we got Microsoft Money and Quicken. You still had to manually enter your data (still needed high motivation), but now the software did the heavy lifting, providing visualized feedback of your spending habits over time. You could now more easily see the story of your behavior and respond to it.

And now today, once we had over access to our financial institutions, the data is collected completely passively, and turned into feedback (visualizations, alerts) that give insight and cues regarding our behavior.

Most of the new wave of products is based on the data/feedback loop model.

Where does it live?

Persuasion

Usability/Utility

In some camps, certain techniques are seen as a means to persuade, in others that same technique is a means to aid cognition. Trialability is the concept that if you simulate an activity, or demonstrate a product, the user will be more likely to engage in that activity, or with that product - it’s a tool for persuasion. But others, such as an information architect or usability specialist, may see this as a means for aiding cognition, allowing the user to better complete the activity, or understand how to use the product.

Persuasion

Usability/Utility

Amazon One Click is a persuasive tool designed to prompt more impulse purchases (think: reduce friction, increase ability).

But it’s not a binary proposition only in Amazon’s interest. The feature has value to the user, it makes purchasing an item easier.

Persuasion

Usability/Utility

Good Defaults (AKA Smart Defaults) are intended to aid in completing forms or wizards easily and correctly.

But it also persuades the user’s actions. People will be less likely to consider their options. This ‘cognitive shortcut’ persuades the user to go with the system defaults.

Persuasion

Usability/Utility

Example:

Organ DonationOpt-in vs. Opt-out

Clearly intent and purpose are key. Defaults can be pushed within the spectrum, like in the case of defaulting to “yes” in selecting organ donation when applying for a driver’s license, and needing to opt out.

Countries that require opt-out have very high organ donation volunteerism, and countries that require you to opt in are much lower.

Persuasion

Awareness(of your intent)

High

LowUtility /Usability

Micro (usability / features)

Macro (utility / prods. & services)

Awareness

Let’s take the scale and add a second axis. This is the user’s awareness of your intent as a designer. (or as a product/service)

Persuasion

Awareness(of your intent)

High

LowUtility /Usability

Micro (usability / features)

Macro (utility / prods. & services)

Awareness

Good defaults Progress

indicator

Amazon One-Click

We’ve seen where features like good defaults and one-click are. We can plot other design patterns, such as progress indicators.

These don’t “declare” their intent, yet they don’t deliberately conceal it either.

Persuasion

Awareness(of your intent)

High

LowUtility /Usability

Micro (usability / features)

Macro (utility / prods. & services)

Awareness

Good defaults Progress

indicator

Amazon One-Click

ManipulationDeception

Freecreditreport.com

Manipulation: all persuasion with no value to the user

Deception: covert in intentions

Stay away from this ethically mucky area. This is where you see products and services that hide their true (deception) and involve you in a service that you were not aware of or didn’t explicitly approve (manipulation).

Persuasion

Awareness(of your intent)

High

LowUtility /Usability

Micro (usability / features)

Macro (utility / prods. & services)

Awareness

Good defaults Progress

indicator

Amazon One-Click

ManipulationDeception

Freecreditreport.com

Generally, ‘features’ (micro persuasion) will be lower in intent. While we’ll see products and services (macro persuasion) up top as they have a clearly stated value proposition (creating explicit awareness of their intent).

Persuasion

Awareness(of your intent)

High

LowUtility /Usability

Micro (usability / features)

Macro (utility / prods. & services)

Awareness

Good defaults Progress

indicator

Amazon One-Click

ManipulationDeception

Freecreditreport.com

Gmail

BasecampiTunes

Applications with high utility (iTunes, Gmail, Basecamp, etc.). Intent of utility is fairly high, usually as part of value proposition.

A product like Basecamp deliberately constrains features, as part of their value proposition, so they may move slightly to the right of the scale, as the product’s features will influence how you manage your projects with the tool.

Persuasion

Awareness(of your intent)

High

LowUtility /Usability

Micro (usability / features)

Macro (utility / prods. & services)

Awareness

Good defaults Progress

indicator

Amazon One-Click

ManipulationDeception

Freecreditreport.com

Gmail

BasecampiTunes

Shortmail

Weight Watchers

NestNike+

We now have an influx of products and services, enabled by technology, that are designed with the intent of influencing our behavior. Intent is made clear, usually in value proposition (reduce your debt, get in shape, etc.)

Persuasion

Awareness(of your intent)

High

LowUtility /Usability

Micro (usability / features)

Macro (utility / prods. & services)

Awareness

Good defaults Progress

indicator

Amazon One-Click

ManipulationDeception

Freecreditreport.com

Gmail

BasecampiTunes

Shortmail

Weight Watchers

NestNike+

Behavior change as value proposition.

Behavior Change as Value Proposition

Value proposition is directly related to behavior.

System makes recommendations or guidance.

Data collection is primary feature

Behavior is measurable. (feedback loop)

Scaling self-determination(some products you have to use as prescribed)

Personal (health, environment, finances, personal habits)

Behavior Change as Value Proposition

How Do We Apply It?

StrategyResearchBehavior HeuristicsDesign PrinciplesExperience Mapping

Parts of the process

Strategy

Where does your value proposition map?Utility?Behavior change?Attitude change?

? ??

Conversion (micro) or Value Proposition (macro)?

Utility

What areas are do you want to affect change/apply persuasion?OnboardingSign-upsProfile completionTransaction funnels

!

?? ?

Behavior Change

What is the behavior change?How is that story told (data/feedback)What is the value prop?(customer value with business value)Implicit?Explicit?

??

Research

Strategy drives questions you want to have answered.MotivationKnowledge (i.e. awareness and understanding)Doubts/Barriers (i.e. security issues)Ability (drives how story is told)

-Mental model with behavior profile-Thinking, feeling, doing

Behavior Heuristics

Rules (of thumb) that people might follow when interacting with a system.

—Dan Lockton

Asking users questions about how and why they behaved in certain ways with technology led to answers which were resolvable into something like rules.

“”

“”

http://architectures.danlockton.co.uk/2012/02/09/if/

Behavior Heuristics

Peel back layersSimilar to “5 Whys”“Let’s look in more detail at ‘People will do what they see other people doing’: Why? Why will people do what they see other people doing? If we break this down, asking ‘Why?’ a couple of times, we get to tease out some slightly different possible factors.”

http://architectures.danlockton.co.uk/2012/02/09/if/

Behavior Heuristics

Create heuristics or principles▶ If lots of people are doing it, do it

Show directly how many (or what proportion of) people are choosing an option

▶ If people like me are doing it, do it

Show the user that his or her peers, or people in a similar situation, make a particular choice

▶ If people that I aspire to be like are doing it, do it

Show the user that aspirational figures are making a particular choice

▶ If something worked before, do it again

Remind the user what worked last time

▶ If an expert recommends it, do it

Show the user that expert figures are making a particular choice

http://architectures.danlockton.co.uk/2012/02/09/if/

Design Principles

Examples

Learn while doing Suggestions, not choices Provide conceptual anchors.Treat every visit like it’s their second to last visit.

Not too specific

Can design against, matching patterns to principles

Mapping

Experience Map for Rail Europe | August 2011

STAGES

DOING

FEELING

Research & Planning ShoppingBooking

Post-Booking, Pre-TravelTravel

Post Travel

People choose rail travel because it is

convenient, easy, and flexible.

Rail booking is only one part of people’s larger

travel process.

People build their travel plans over time. People value service that is respectful, effective

and personable.

EXPERIENCE

Rail Europe Experience Map

Kayak, compare

airfare

Google searches

Research hotelsTalk with

friends

Relevance of Rail Europe

Enjoyability

Helpfulness of Rail Europe

Paper tickets arrive in mail

• I’m excited to go to Europe!

• Will I be able to see everything I can?

• What if I can’t afford this?

• I don’t want to make the wrong choice.

• It’s hard to trust Trip Advisor. Everyone is

so negative.

• Keeping track of all the different products

is confusing.

• Am I sure this is the trip I want to take?

• Website experience is easy and friendly!

• Frustrated to not know sooner about which

tickets are eTickets and which are paper tickets.

Not sure my tickets will arrive in time.

• Stressed that I’m about to leave the country

and Rail Europe won’t answer the phone.

• Frustrated that Rail Europe won’t ship tickets

to Europe.• Happy to receive my tickets in the mail!

• I am feeling vulnerable to be in an unknown place in

the middle of the night.

• Stressed that the train won’t arrive on time for my

connection.

• Meeting people who want to show us around is fun,

serendipitous, and special.

• Excited to share my vacation story with

my friends.• A bit annoyed to be dealing with ticket refund

issues when I just got home.

View maps

Arrange travel

Blogs & Travel sites

Plan with interactive map

Review fares

Select pass(es)

Enter trips Confirm itinerary

Delivery options

Payment options

Review & confirm

Map itinerary(finding pass)

Destination pages

May call if difficulties

occur

E-ticket Print at Station

Web

raileurope.com

Wait for paper tickets to arrive

Research destinations, routes and products

Live chat for questions

Activities, unexpected changes

Change plans

Check ticket status

Print e-tickets at home

web/apps

Look up timetables

Plan/confirm activities

Web

Share photos

Share experience

(reviews)

Request refunds

Follow-up on refunds for booking changesShare experience

Buy additional tickets

Look up time tables

Stakeholder interviewsCognitive walkthroughs

Customer Experience Survey

Existing Rail Europe Documentation

Opportunities

Guiding Principles

Customer Journey

Information sources

RAIL EUROPE

THINKING

• What is the easiest way to get around Europe?

• Where do I want to go?

• How much time should I/we spend in each

place for site seeing and activities?

• I want to get the best price, but I’m willing to pay a

little more for first class.

• How much will my whole trip cost me? What are my

trade-offs?• Are there other activities I can add to my plan?

• Do I have all the tickets, passes and reservations

I need in this booking so I don’t pay more

shipping?• Rail Europe is not answering the phone. How

else can I get my question answered?

• Do I have everything I need?

• Rail Europe website was easy and friendly, but

when an issue came up, I couldn’t get help.

• What will I do if my tickets don’t arrive in time?

• I just figured we could grab a train but there are

not more trains. What can we do now?

• Am I on the right train? If not, what next?

• I want to make more travel plans. How do I

do that?

• Trying to return ticket I was not able to use. Not

sure if I’ll get a refund or not.

• People are going to love these photos!

• Next time, we will explore routes and availability

more carefully.

Ongoing, non-linear

Linear process

Non-linear, but time based

Communicate a clear value proposition.

STAGE: Initial visit Connect planning, shopping and booking on the web.

STAGES: Planning, Shopping, Booking

Arm customers with information for making decisions.

STAGES: Shopping, Booking

Improve the paper ticket experience.

STAGES: Post-Booking, Travel, Post-Travel

Make your customers into better, more savvy travelers.

STAGES: Global

Proactively help people deal with change.

STAGES: Post-Booking, Traveling

Support people in creating their own solutions.

STAGES: Global

Visualize the trip for planning and booking.

STAGES: Planning, Shopping

Enable people to plan over time.

STAGES: Planning, Shopping

Engage in social media with explicit purposes.

STAGES: Global

Communicate status clearly at all times.

STAGES: Post-Booking, Post Travel

Accommodate planning and booking in Europe too.

STAGE: Traveling

Aggregate shipping with a reasonable timeline.

STAGE: Booking

Help people get the help they need.

STAGES: Global

GLOBAL

PLANNING, SHOPPING, BOOKING

POST-BOOK, TRAVEL, POST-TRAVEL

Relevance of Rail Europe

Enjoyability

Helpfulness of Rail Europe

Relevance of Rail Europe

Enjoyability

Helpfulness of Rail Europe

Relevance of Rail Europe

Enjoyability

Helpfulness of Rail Europe

Relevance of Rail Europe

Enjoyability

Helpfulness of Rail Europe

Relevance of Rail Europe

Enjoyability

Helpfulness of Rail Europe

Mail tickets for refund

Get stamp for refund

Mapping

Adds ContextAbility (drives how story is told)

Map touchpoints to motivation,knowledge, doubts/barriers Identify trigger opportunitiesReveal how story is told (data collected, feedback given, opportunities, etc.)

Target a behavior goal1-3 discreet behaviors

Create a storyMay be literal, or metaphorical (data)

Keep it simpleUse less laundry detergent vs. reduce your carbon footprint

Tie to emotionUnderstand how people make decisions

We should look at what kind of impact people’s behavior should have on design.

—Paola Antonelli

“ ”

Applying Behavior Design

Chris Risdon @chrisrisdonSXSW 2012#sxbehavior #behavior

or Behavior: you’re soaking in it.

Thank you!