Interview: BJ Fogg On Persuasion Design Using Captology
Dr. BJ Fogg is the acknowledged founder of captology and author of the book Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do. He currently heads the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab.
You explain captology as the intersection of computers and behavior change. How do you view the interplay of captology with marketing?
BJ Fogg: The new metrics tools (e.g., Google WSO and Analytics) can help people market their site or service better. I think such tools and approaches are becoming part of captology more and more because these methods automate how we influence others.
In what ways does the current level of technology limit our ability to persuade customers to buy and how do you envision this changing in the future …or is this a misconception?
BJ Fogg: In my view the complexity of buying things online or on mobile is the major impediment to more transactions. In other words, people would buy more stuff if it were simpler. Case in point: I wanted to buy a new bike by Townie. It was hard to find the different models; it was hard to find out how to buy a bike. Another example: Yesterday, when buying something at Musician’s Friend, I had to type info into about 20 fields. And I had to try three times to get it all correct.
To get a behavior to occur (such as purchasing something), three things need to happen at once: 1) people need to be sufficiently motivated, 2) they need to have the ability to do it, and 3) they need a trigger to do the behavior now. Purchasing systems that require lots of steps or thought make it hard for people, reducing their ability (item #2 in the list above). As they struggle, their motivation wanes (item #1). Only the most persistent keep at it.
Is a persuasion persona or scenario different from the interaction design personas advocated by Alan Cooper and others, and if so, how?
BJ Fogg: My guess is that designing for persuasion is somewhat different from Cooper’s approach, though plenty overlaps. In designing for persuasion, you need to understand the user, the context, and the three variables I sent earlier: motivation, ability, and triggers.
What are some top persuasion design mistakes being made on websites today?
BJ Fogg: Top mistakes:
1. The value proposition is too hard to figure out.
In other words, I go to the site and I can’t figure out what you're offering me — or why I should care. You need to motivate people to try your service or engage further with you. Most sites are too complicated. They outline 12 reasons why their service is so great (we help you share photos in ALL these amazing ways …). These reasons may be good for internal people or those familiar with the industry, but for average folks, it's way too much. Give people ONE compelling reason to be interested. Finding the one is a matter of testing.
2. Making it too hard to perform the target behavior
I believe a site should get people to do one thing, maybe two. All paths should lead people to that one thing. If a site is trying to get people to do multiple behaviors (or offering a big menu of possibilities), people are likely to get confused or frustrated.
A recent good example: Socialthing.com — This site offers one thing: aggregate your feeds from different sites. I just signed up yesterday.
Another good example of 1 & 2: Texty you can try it out right on their top page.
3. Not building credibility
See how well 37Signals builds credibility on their site. Their top page gives a clear value proposition, then it builds credibility. Their product offering is getting a bit complicated, but then again their audience can probably handle it. They started with one product and then built from there.
Wouldn’t captology design be ideal for supporting corporate and organization change management, and if so in what ways?
BJ Fogg: Absolutely. Captology can help companies succeed. As I see it, captology isn’t just persuasive web sites or video games to change behaviors. Captology is a way of thinking clearly about target behaviors and how to achieve those goals using technology. For example … To clarify behavior goals, I have a process called “impact analysis.” This gets everyone aligned on a project. Then I’ve created a grid that maps out the 35 different types of behavior change. Each behavior change type has its own strategies and tactics (e.g., motivating a one-time behavior is different than motivating a behavior people should do every day). Then I have developed frameworks for behavior change, motivation, simplicity and so on. In a year or so, I’ll probably share a new theory of context I’ve created (context is a difficult construct), since our context controls our behaviors to a great degree.
So this is probably not the answer you expected. For me captology is a method with related tools for solving problems. Others may not see it that way. What I’ve enjoyed in this area since 1993 is taking what other psychologists have made unnecessarily complicated and distilling down to the essence. That’s what my frameworks and theories are all about — helping people understand and measure what matters.
Related Articles:
Storyboards, Scenarios, Design Personas
Information Work: What Is Context Worth?
Resources
- A List Apart introduces the idea of gradual engagement through getting rid of signup forms.
- Google analytics and WSO allows you to track A/B split run tests to improve conversion rates.
- Provide Socialthing.com your details for sites like Facebook and Pownce and the site automatically aggregates your lists from and back to other social services.
- Texty: Dead Simple Content Creation And Editing a has an interface which allows you to immediately get to work.
- Mobile Persuasion: 20 Perspectives of the Future of Behavior Change sees the mobile phone as the platform for behavior change, succeeding desktop computers.
- The Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab has a useful introduction to Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do