Fogg Behavior Model: Action Design DC, 17 March 13
Lean actiondesign nova_ux_13march2013_v4sw
1. ACTION DESIGN:
Designing products that help people take action
Steve Wendel
Principal Scientist, HelloWallet
@sawendel
NoVA UX Meetup, 13 March 13
2. ACTION DESIGN
• Traditional product design is about
building good products
• Action Design is about building good products
that are effective at changing behavior.
So people can do things they want to do,
but haven't been able to do before.
• Without:
• Coercion
• Persuasion
• Trickery
3. NEW RESEARCH, NEW OPPORTUNITIES
1. Decades of research in persuasion & trickery
2. A recent growth in more beneficial uses
3. Action Design makes this literature real & useful
for UX and product people:
• Pulling in the latest behavioral research
• Measuring causal impact
• Integrating UX and product expertise
4. TOPICS
How it works: tools, process, and preparation
Designing a user progression
Designing the app itself
Implementing the designs & more
5. HOW IT WORKS: TOOLS
1. Learning how the mind decides to act
2. Thinking strategically about behavior change
3. Evaluating alternative actions
4. Designing around an action
5. Measuring impact
6. HOW IT WORKS: PROCESS
Note: hey, this is what
happens when a researcher
does graphic design…. We’ll
talk about why designers
need to be free to do
beautiful things later.
8. WHAT’S A USER PROGRESSION?
Our goal:
Develop a detailed “story” of how the user progresses
from being a neophyte to accomplishing the action.
We’ll do that with three tools:
1. Learning how the mind decides to act
2. Thinking strategically about behavior change
3. Designing around an action
The “story” can be narrative, visual, verbal, whatever.
9. TOOL: HOW THE MIND DECIDES TO ACT
1. We have two independent
systems for decision making
= Dual Process Theory
= The Rider & The Elephant
2. Most of the time, we’re not Image from http://kazez.blogspot.com/
actually “choosing” what to do. Metaphor from J. Haidt (2006) & the Buddha
3. We’re using habits.
4. Or, we’re using hundreds of
cognitive shortcuts.
10. TOOL: HOW THE MIND DECIDES TO ACT
5. Shortcut: We don’t read webpages.
6. Shortcut: We do stuff that’s easy and familiar.
7. Shortcut: We judge based on rough, prior associations.
8. Shortcut: Beautiful = Easy to Read = True
Easy to Remember = Likeable = True
11. TOOL: THINK STRATEGICALLY
Three core behavior change strategies:
1. Cheat.
2. Build habits.
3. Help users make the choice,
consciously.
LarkLife exercise
& sleep band
12. CHEAT IF YOU CAN
Remove the need for the user to work.
Option 1: Set a default option
Example: “Easy Mode” on fancy cameras
Option 2: Make it a side effect
Example: Add iron to flour
Option 3: Automate it, behind the scenes
Example: 401(k) automatic deductions, bill payment
Question: How can we cheat with the exercise app?
13. BUILD HABITS
Habits save the conscious mind from doing work.
1. Gamification is one option.
2. To do it, identify:
1. A clear trigger
(time of day, or event in life),
2. A routine
Duhigg (2012)
(something to do unconsciously), The Power of Habit
3. A reward
(especially random ones).
Question: What natural habit loops exists for exercise?
14. THE CONSCIOUS CHOICE TO ACT
1. Deciding to act takes work – esp. attention and self-control
2. You won’t keep attention for long
3. Self-control varies across the day
4. Align with the intuitive mind as much as possible.
There’s no such thing as a “conscious mode” of thinking.
15. TOOL: DESIGNING AROUND AN ACTION
Write out the story of new users progressing over time
Four tasks can help:
1. Gather Knowledge
2. Structure the Action
3. Construct the Environment
4. Prepare the User
16. GATHER KNOWLEDGE:
GET TO KNOW YOUR USERS
• What major groups are there?
• By experience with the actions?
Already exercise vs. don’t.
• By expertise with your medium?
Have a smart phone vs. don’t.
• By how they see you?
Trust you vs. don’t.
• Why haven’t they taken this action in the past?
• What’s easy for them? What’s familiar?
17. STRUCTURE THE ACTION ITSELF
1. Break the action up
into small, manageable steps
2. Build up the users’ confidence
From money.cnn.com
3. Give clear feedback
4. Make it clear what to do physically, specifically
5. Look for ways to cheat, and look for habit loops.
Question: What sequence of actions will help users exercise?
18. CONSTRUCT THE ENVIRONMENT
1. Motivate – why should they act?
2. Trigger – actually ASK them to act.
3. Identify and neutralize competing
motivations & triggers
4. This is very similar to Fogg’s Behavior Model,
but with a bit more guidance on the design part.
Question: What’s in the users’ environment, for each step?
Write out the story: why act, why now, and why not do something else?
19. PREPARE THE INDIVIDUAL FOR ACTION
1. Educate? Only if necessary. Usually wasted.
2. Hook into prior positive associations & experiences
3. Develop a self-narrative that the user will succeed
Question: How do you prepare the user to act, for each
step of the progression?
21. YOU ALREADY KNOW HOW
• Extract the agile user stories or
specifications you need
from the user progression
• Work up some rough wireframes
• Remember:
• A behavioral plan is not a product.
It’s a design consideration.
• UX experts must be free to innovate & find creative,
beautiful ways to accomplish the plan.
22. YOU ALREADY KNOW HOW, PART 2
• Got Wireframes? Cool.
• Use the same tools, again.
This is the little-B behavioral work.
• Think strategically:
• Where can you cheat?
• Where are there habit loops?
• Design around the action:
• Structure the action itself?
• Construct the environment?
• Prepare the user to act?
23. YOU ALREADY KNOW HOW, PART 3
• In the details (wording, layout, etc.),
remember how the mind makes decisions – shortcuts.
• Loss aversion
• Implementation intentions
• Temporal Myopia
• Inertia
• Peer effects
• … and many more…
• See John Whalen’s Presentation, Anderson’s Seductive
Interaction Design, Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think,
Weinshenk’s 100 Things
26. IMPLEMENTATION
• Same Tool: Behavior Change Strategies
• Same Tool: Design Around the Action
• New Tool: Evaluate Behavioral Cost-
Effectiveness
27. MEASUREMENT & ITERATION
• New Tool: Impact Assessment
• New Tool: Evaluate Behavioral Cost-
Effectiveness
• Same Tool: Behavior Change Strategies
28. PICKING THE RIGHT BATTLE
• New Tool: Evaluate Behavioral Cost-
Effectiveness
• New Tool: (Plan for) Impact Assessment
29. AND THAT’S IT FOR NOW.
• Comments! Feedback!
• What more do you need to know?
• Examples in your own work?
• Check out actiondesign.hellowallet.com for more on this step-by-step
method for designing for behavior change.
• Check out www.meetup.com/action-design-dc
A Meetup on product-mediated, beneficial behavior change, where
anyone in the community can swap notes.
The next meetup, March 19th 6:30pm, is a deep dive into BJ Fogg’s
Persuasive Design and Behavioral Model
• Contact me any time at steve@hellowallet.com or @sawendel
There is a lot that can said about HelloWallet, its an interesting and original business that evokes passion & curiosity and this presentation will animate much of that. But if there is only one thing you take away from this pitch it is this – that HelloWallet enables all Americans to reach their financial potential. Not just Americans with money to spend or manage…although we’ll help them too and they are some of our most passionate customers…but all Americans. Regardless of their economic mobility or ability to pay us. So one thing: we strive to provide the financial guidance to help every American Say Hello to their Money.