Using Psychology To Guide User Behavior
If we want to provide a solution for users to guide their behavior, we first have to understand where they are coming from and what motivates them. This goes beyond asking about simple demographics like age, area code and gender. Why do they want to change their behavior now and not tomorrow? What have they tried before, and what worked for them? Are they motivated by extrinsic or intrinsic factors? Only by gaining a deeper understanding of our users and how they will interact with our product will we be able to create an interface that is usable and delivers value. Customer experience maps, personas and user journeys are useful tools for capturing these insights, and they serve as a great reference throughout the UX and design process. While these maps can help us identify the motivational component in Fogg’s model, they could also give us hints about users' ability levels and effective triggers.
Before launching or revamping a product, answer the following questions. Where will your users most likely be when they use your product? What tasks will they most commonly perform? What mistakes or frustrations might they encounter? How do they feel about their capacity and skills? The answers to these questions will point to the requirements that our interface and product will have to meet. The best method of gathering this information is contextual inquiry. Here, we will accompany some of our prospective users as they interact with our product in the location where they would naturally use it. You might think this is a waste of resources and could just as easily be achieved by talking to users after they have used the product but, as research shows, memories can be tainted and users might not be as open and frank with us as we would hope.
A lot of biases can affect the findings of an interview that depends on remembering specific details, and they can easily be avoided through observation. With the information gathered from observation, we should now have a better idea of our users' ability to interact with the interface. We should also be able to ensure that tools for the most common tasks are easily accessible to them. We may have observed users make some errors while interacting with the product. Swiping generally requires more effort than tapping and is less likely to happen accidentally. Find out what errors might occur when users interact with our interface, and help them prevent or recover from them.
Understanding what motivates our users and how we can adapt our product to their level of ability are two important steps. Thanks to mobile technology, sending notifications at precise times and even locations to direct the user's attention to our product has become easier than ever. However, with the sheer amount of notifications that users are exposed to, we must use this wisely to prevent the user from perceiving them as intrusive and possibly turning them off. Fogg's behavior model shows that triggers are most effective when the user’s levels of motivation and ability are sufficiently high. This means that timing is crucial. The research methods will give us indicators on when users are likely to engage with our product and where. In addition, usage statistics expand this picture. Users are motivated by different things at different times. Rather than flooding them with triggers, give them control over what types of triggers they receive. Some users might want an image they can print and pin in their home, while others might prefer a short message reminding them of their goal. Work with the users to find motivating triggers.