Before the text begins, imagine this picture:
"You are participating in a marathon. You are very tired. With heavy steps, you are exhausted and feel like you can't hold on. At this moment, the finish line of the race appears in front of your eyes. At this moment, there will be a kind of magic. The power of this makes you speed up your pace unconsciously, running like a destination. "And this magical power is a psychological phenomenon called "motivation."
When we survive in society, the internal thinking process, selection and execution of things are all guided and promoted by motivation. Just like the marathon mentioned above, after seeing the finish line when exhausted, you can unconsciously speed up the pace to push you forward. This is the inner strength of motivation. Simply put, motivation is an energy ball, push you to successfully complete the goal
Imagine another scene: you are browsing vintage camera products, and you happen to see a product that fully meets your requirements, so your heart is moved and you participate in the auction of this product without hesitation. At the beginning of the auction, you make a bid. When you top the list with the best offer, you have anticipated that you will get it soon, but in the last minute of the auction, some people appeared and raised the price there. Next, you have two choices. Give this product to that person. The other option is to open a tight bidding battle. I must win and offer a higher price, which will also exceed your budget.
After 60 seconds of intense bidding, you have obtained the right to purchase and ownership of the goods.
Then in eBay auction bidding, what is the motivation for you to offer higher prices?
-
Your desire for this product;
-
Conquer the desire of others.
Having said that, have you discovered that we more or less let different external factors affect our behavior. So how do we judge to solve the actual motivation problem? How to use motivation to motivate users to continue using the product?
Motivation is an inner strength
Motivation is the motivation or need in the self or the environment, and the desire for change. Motivation guides our behavior in many different ways—whether it's running a marathon, bidding on a product, playing a game, or learning a new skill; its inherent energy encourages us to move on.
Everyone has the motivation to seek happiness and avoid pain, seek hope and avoid fear, and seek social acceptance and avoid rejection. — Dr BJ Fogg's
general motivations are divided into two types:
- External motivation-everything that exists in the world
- Internal motivation-from the heart
External motivation-everything that exists in the world
Extrinsic motivation exists as a tangible reward or social recognition in the world.
Our motivation to seek change and reward in the external environment is called external motivation.
Just like when we run a marathon, our perception of the external environment, including the end of the race and the cheers of the people around the track in our sight, has invisibly accelerated our progress;
External motivations stimulate us to obtain external rewards through behavior. For example, some people have a hobby of collecting medals and certificates. For them, it is best for them to enjoy the process of collecting medals, certificates, money and other practical items, and they are recognized and praised , I can even gain fame, it’s nice to think about it b(￣▽￣)d
But not all external motives are positive. Fear of the external environment is also a huge external motive, which will affect our behavior in different environments. For example, at work, we are worried that we will be fired and we may work harder. Work to create value for the company. When you are visiting the supermarket, you see that people around you are hoarding food, and some even a family is dispatched. Several carts are filled with food. What would you do? Maybe you are worried about the food shortage in the future and you cannot buy food? Therefore, you may also choose to copy their actions and buy several carts of food.
Intrinsic motivation-self
Maslow's hierarchy of needs-the pyramid of intrinsic motivation
Speaking of intrinsic motivation, I have to mention Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, which divides people’s needs from top to bottom into five levels: self-needs, respectful needs, social needs, safety needs and physiological needs.
Behavior when there is no actual external reward is called intrinsic motivation. This happens when we do something interesting and pleasant. For example, reading, playing games or learning new skills can make you feel very satisfied naturally.
Intrinsic rewards are naturally satisfactory and occur without any obvious external rewards
The inner motivation comes from oneself, and guide one's own behavior to meet different needs. According to Abraham Maslow's "hierarchy of needs", our motivation begins with physical needs, such as water, food, and shelter. Once we have obtained these necessities, we can enter the next stage that is more important for happiness and growth.
Under the highest level of demand (self-realization), we hope to realize our potential and be the best ourselves. For example, you may wish to be a role model for your children, or hope to succeed at work. Intrinsic motivation is not only incredibly self-rewarding, but it is more durable and easier to maintain than external motivation.
Motivation in product design
Throughout the banking, gaming, education, retail and other industries, companies are using different methods to increase user participation in products. Just like we keep opening various social media software every day to see if there is any news? During this period, I was often attracted by other things in the product interface, and then forgot what was the original motivation for opening the product?
So, how does the design of the product stimulate user behavior?
In order to find the answer to this question, we systematically evaluated the common ways and opinions about motivation in product design. I found that even though some ideas and methods were several years ago, the results are still useful today.
Through this process, we learned how different motivations in a product can affect user behavior.
What are you hesitating, come and take it!
Freemium model
Freemium refers to a business model that achieves two purposes by providing users with free content or subsidizing prices: (1) Selling another product with higher profit to users; (2) Selling to third parties (such as Advertisers) sell user data.
In game products, players are usually forced to spend money in the game world to obtain new resources or access exclusive content, so as to upgrade faster. The freemium model aims to make people willingly recharge products: investing real money in virtual premium rewards. For example, in Supercell’s free game "Clash of Clans", players can choose to purchase additional items, such as green gems: a high-level currency that can be exchanged for commodities, such as troops and buildings.
When players need to acquire new resources or upgrade faster, they can only buy gems. After all, Nanshan Pizza Hut says: Only by charging money can you become stronger. After the players recharge, they can get external rewards faster, win games, and participate in higher-level leagues.
When players are rewarded by defeating tenacious opponents or entering distant leagues, they will find their achievements incredible. Positive results can help players build self-esteem and motivate players to charge up more money and become the best players in the game.
Gamification
Gamification refers to the use of features and mechanisms in games to make products more interesting and attractive to users.
The specific way is to attract people by incentivizing them to get tangible rewards, such as points, milestones, badges and leaderboards. Although gamification is mainly an external incentive, as long as the user is a little "improved" than yesterday, then we will continue to praise him and stimulate the user's internal incentives. Under the dual role of internal and external incentives, will he still not use your product ?
Gamification has increased the user's emotion and participation in the product to a certain extent; after all, external rewards are happily received by everyone. Especially retail brands can use gamification to stimulate users to invest in spending. As early as 1995, eBay introduced a new and exciting shopping method-online bidding. As we discussed in the scene at the beginning of this article, consumers are not only driven by the purchase of the item, but also enjoy the sense of accomplishment of "beating others". Online auctions are the same for sellers. The seller receiving the first bid is also an exciting time, just like collecting badges and fame.
Points system and membership level system
Are you familiar with terms such as membership and membership upgrade? The point system and membership level system have been in existence for a long time. They are used to increase user participation and the number of activities. They can motivate users to spend more time and money willingly to get rewards such as upgrades.
Mainly rely on some loyalty strategies-through some exclusive rewards to stimulate and increase user loyalty.
The Wild&Beautiful Collective program of Annemarie skin care products is to provide a free membership system to increase user opportunities. In addition, it stipulates that higher-level members will enjoy more advanced member services (including new tastings, etc.) to attract more members to spend in order to enjoy these services.
User loyalty cannot be bought with money. If you want users to be loyal to the product, then understand what their inner motivation is! Then slowly build a trusting relationship with them.
Member points background management system in Moknife Material Square
After establishing a relationship, we have to think about how to maintain such a relationship? We all know that only relying on external rewards is not enough, and this is the reason for the existence of strategies for how to improve user loyalty.
To gain longer-term loyalty, a strong CRM strategy is needed to make full use of people’s needs, thoughts, and emotions~
Many companies have formed strategies to maintain user loyalty. For example, Disney's movie operation strategy is to allow fans to accumulate points to redeem products and special experiences (such as Walt Disney Studios Tour).
Member points function module page in Moknife Material Square
Word of mouth
The reputation of the product will affect our way of thinking, and even in certain circumstances will affect our purchases.
The social proof theory created by Robert Cialdini: People will influence their own behavior based on the behavior of others. For example, we might choose to dine in a certain restaurant because of a friend's recommendation.
Word of mouth is one of the most effective ways to influence decision making
Pre-order products can introduce other user behaviors to stimulate user behavior. For example, you might see a message in the list of hotels that says: "18 people are viewing this room now" or "Only 1 room left." There is no doubt that the latter will undoubtedly add a scarcity effect, that is, what people think is highly cost-effective. In addition, the comments and ratings of other users will affect our positive and negative impressions of a product and then make decisions.
The ratings and opinions of others can also have a significant impact on our decision-making process. For example, the five-star rating on Tripadvisor can give us a general impression of the hotel's services and facilities. But as long as you see most of the users who have bought the product give bad reviews, we are more willing to trust the ratings and opinions given by real users, rather than the description of the merchant.
The role of completion schedule
Joseph C. Nunes and Xavier Dreze researched the phenomenon theory of talent progress effect that people are generally willing to invest in things that already enjoy a certain degree of sweetness and progress.
For example: Which of the following membership cards will make you invest more energy?
A) A card with 8 stamps without a stamp
B) A 10 stamp card with 2 free stamps
According to the research of Nunes and Dreze, the answer is usually B.
Even though both membership cards need to use the same number of stamps (8), if people have tasted the benefits, they may work harder and more efficiently.
In Qordoba, the artificial intelligence writing assistant, novices will get interactive demonstrations, and novices must do tasks during the guidance. Completing the novice guide can make it easier for users to get started with the product. In addition, you can also increase user participation enthusiasm by presetting attractive high-score performance indicators. The artificial novice guidance in Qordoba ignites intrinsic motivation, including the desire to learn, achieve, and succeed. The degree of progress given in the product fundamentally motivates users and increases their experience pleasure.
Target setting
Focus on the highest goal to achieve higher success
The goal setting pioneered by Dr. Edwin Locke and Dr. Gary Latham is the use of clear goals and appropriate feedback. Usually, when setting goals, people work harder and perform better. Especially for learning products, this theory is used to help students meet their inherent needs for progress and personal goals. Telling them "try hard" or "do your best" is less effective than saying "try to get 80% or more correctness."
The Interactive Design Foundation, an educational service that provides online courses, uses goal setting to stimulate deeper and more challenging learning. For example, every time a student logs in, they will see a dashboard showing progress. When the learner strives to reach a series of completion checkpoints, external motivations come into play, including a minimum of 70% passing, a maximum of 10% of study and 100% of the best grade.
Each milestone is a challenge that helps increase workload and learning rate. The highest goal of course is to encourage students to answer 100% of the questions in the course correctly and give them rewards. The special reward will be clearly printed on the certificate and displayed on the public profile of the member. This encourages them, establishes their self-esteem, and motivates them to continue to use the product to learn.
proficient
Our thirst for knowledge keeps growing, after all, mastery can make it easy.
Our intrinsic motivation to acquire new knowledge and new skills will guide us to read books, encyclopedias and study as much as possible. Usually it does not have a clear return and end in terms of money, but we still hope that we have made progress in learning. People like to feel that they are making progress, that they are learning and mastering new knowledge and skills-Susan M. Weinschenk, PhD.
For example, LinkedIn inspires faster establishment of contacts and personal information by assigning users simple tasks to be completed and showing them the progress. When members’ personal investments are rewarded, such as rewards for new contacts, career opportunities or more meaningful content, they become more engaged.
Mastery is a powerful element of inner motivation
LinkedIn also stimulates internal motivation by providing work levels. For example, the last task may require writing a personal profile, and doing so will promote them to All-Star status and increase discoverability. In addition to improving personal information, members' achievements are not limited. They can continue to build contacts and join different communities, and each community provides something new for learning or contributing.
to sum up:
Motivation is a very powerful psychological function that enables us to generate internal energy for progress.
In an oversaturated product market, many companies are increasing investment in behavioral design to convince people to use their products. Among them, the retail and gaming industries prefer to use external motives to influence behavior. However, it ignores the external motivations that can inspire internal motivations, such as signs of praise and progress. Novice guidelines that promote personal development and quick start will help users get started with the product better and produce a more meaningful and lasting experience.
Take Qordoba as an example, writing companion is an extension of users, stimulating their inner motivation by praising their productivity and characteristics. Continuous positive and constructive feedback builds self-esteem and encourages faster progress towards larger goals. The research and application of motivation is an evolving field. There are more theories, techniques and ideas that can influence user behavior.
Therefore, what other ways do you think motivation affects user behavior in the product?
This article is compiled from How the design of digital products motivates user behaviour by Ian Batterbee, and has been authorized by the author.