If you get bored easily, maybe come back tomorrow. This is the nuts and bolts part of my thesis study. If you’re a psych nerd, stick around.
Now that y’all understand the basics of social design, let’s talk about the theories driving it. First, behavior change theory is crucial part of social design.
Here’s a handy dandy graphic guide.
[source]
As outlined in “A Behavioral Model for Persuasive Design” by B.J. Fogg, an expert in behavior design:
“… behavior is a product of three factors: motivation, ability, and triggers, each of which has subcomponents.”
Fogg’s model claims that:
“… for a target behavior to happen, a person must have sufficient motivation, sufficient ability, and an effective trigger. All three factors must be present at the same instant for the behavior to occur.”
In layman’s terms? If I want you to do something, I need to motivate you and trigger you to want to do it. Fogg suggests making the requested behavior as simple as possible for most people to perform because:
“ … we humans naturally love simplicity.”
I guess Fogg’s a believer in Keep it Simple, Stupid (KISS). Besides making things really simple for people, Fogg suggests that designers focus on time because:
“The first element of simplicity is time. If a target behavior requires time and we don’t have time available, then the behavior is not simple.”
Time is money … and brain power, folks. Interactions should be quick. And relatively painless.
Finally, Fogg suggests that a successful persuasive design has a facilitator, which
“… tells users that the target behavior is easy to do, and that it won’t require a resource that he or she does not have …” .
This model of persuasive behavior design is the basis for most social design work and drives the design experiments that I’ll be sharing with you shortly. But not after a little bit more background information. Don’t worry … we’re getting to the good stuff soon.
