In this session Dr. Cugelman will focus on the core elements of motivation, to help you build interactive technologies that are engineered to push your users' emotional hot-buttons.
You will enjoy a presentation on motivation and influence, followed by an interactive session on the ways that ancient emotions, play out in landing page design elements. We'll invite you to complete a quick-and-dirty psychometric test, and then discus different landing page elements that have been designed to resonate with different decision making styles, personality dispositions, and more. This session will give you actionable tips on how to design page elements that boost your users good feelings, and avoids accidentally triggering negative emotions.
6. @cugelman
Evolutionary psychology and motivation/emotion
6
I must attain
this survival
advantage!
Kenrick, Douglas T., et al. "Renovating the pyramid of needs contemporary extensions built upon ancient
foundations." Perspectives on psychological science 5.3 (2010): 292-314.
I must avoid
this survival
threat!
Incentives +(+)
What we desire
Loss aversion -(-)
What we avoid
7. @cugelman
I no longer see any
difference between
the words ‘emotion’
and ‘motivation’.
Emotion = Motivation
7
8. @cugelman 8
How can we trigger emotions,
to nudge users in the right
direction?
10. @cugelman
Dopamine
• How to trigger: Perceiving
anything that promote survival
• Emotional impact: Pleasure,
curiosity, interest, anticipation,
excitement
• Behavioral impact: Creates
anticipation of reward, driving
us to pursue goals with
rewards
10
16. @cugelman
Habituation: Why rewards lose
motivational impact over time
Habituation
• The brain habituates to old
rewards
• Something that triggered
dopamine (motivated) in the
past, no longer triggers
dopamine
• When habituation kicks-in, the
person still seeks rewards, but
your offer loses its ability to
trigger dopamine
Overcoming habituation
• Use novelty, new surprises
• Keep offering more, better,
bigger
• Always hold back the full story
• Slow down your outreach
frequency
• Place your old wine in a new
bottle
16
How do you
overcome
habituation?
19. @cugelman
Cortisol
19
• How to trigger: Perceiving any
internal or external threat
• Emotional impact: Stress,
alertness (low levels), alert
(high-levels), anxiety (high-
levels)
• Behavioral impact: Grabs our
attention, and drives us to
remove the pain or threat
23. @cugelman
Value props can be
visual
23
If you do X, you will get Y.
In this image, does Y trigger cortisol
(threat avoidance) or dopamine
(anticipation of reward)?
25. @cugelman
Unhealthy cortisol/stress
Frustrating
Preventing goal attainment
• Errors / 404 pages
• Breaking conventions
• Impossible goals
• Requesting too much, too fast
Complexity
• Information architecture disaster
• Confusing users with option overload
Ambiguity
• Inconsistent page-level UI logic
• Ambiguity on performing key tasks
• Unclear what buttons do
Threatening
Social threats
• Social banishment
• Lack of social endorsements
• Jealousy
Status threats
• Degrading text messages
• Public shaming / embarrassment
• Negative social comparison
Physical threats
• Unethical “lobster trap” design
• Red flags of scams, identity theft, fraud
25
What are some awful ways to increase user stress?
26. @cugelman
Reducing stress (reducing cortisol levels)
• Simplifying processes:wizards, checklists,checkouts
• Error free design is stress free design
• Reassuring the goal will be met
• Human contact(media equation contact)
• Reducing cognitive load
• Reduce ambiguity
• Humor and fun
• Entertainment
• Don’t trap users
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33. @cugelman 33
Is it really worth $47?
Or is this a marketing ploy?
Who backs
these claims?
Is this a professional
design, or a cheap
template?
Why are they trying so
hard to reassure me?
It looks secure.
I trust these credit
card companies.
42. @cugelman
Serotonin
42
• How to trigger: Realizing
superiority, obtaining recognition,
achieving status, climbing the social
ladder
• Emotional impact: Feeling
important, proud, special, confident,
safe, secure, empowered, envious
• Behavioral impact: Status seeking
behavior, risk-aversion, loyalty to
social structures (tradition)
BACKFIRE RISK
Social comparison may be
moderated by the serotonin system,
with low-status emotions tied to
anxiety, self worth, and depression.
43. @cugelman
Social comparison
When people compare themselves to others, and make evaluations
of higher/lower ranking. Related to pecking orders, social status,
hierarchies, etc…
43
47. @cugelman
When your website flatters
47
Fogg, Brian J., and Clifford Nass. "Silicon sycophants:the effects of computers that
flatter." International Journal ofHuman-Computer Studies 46.5 (1997):551-561.