Day 008. Breaking the Scroll: 91 Days Off Social Media & Rediscovering Life IRL
A Millennial's Digital Detox Diaries: What I Uncovered About BJ Fogg's Persuasive Technology Class.
📢❗🚨 Day 008 of this special October series. 📢❗🚨
If you’re new here, welcome!
I am writing a daily series chronicling my eighth time on an Instagram sabbatical this October. I’ve welcomed this annual ritual since 2016, but this year, I am documenting my daily observations and sharing them with you— my lovely readers. Thank you for being here.
I can’t promise what each day will bring, but I have plenty of thoughts sprouting. Some say I am an over-thinker, but I prefer to self-identify as a lover of thinking.
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Stay tuned—for a little while—to see what I’ll create.
You can follow along with this series and access previous editions here.
What if I told you that the apps on your phones are meticulously engineered and designed to influence your behaviour?
As a continuation of my thoughts from day 007 of this sabbatical, the startling reality to confront is how damn sophisticated application design is these days; it’s more a science than mere artistry, really.
As a mere observer, I am amazed by the breadth of knowledge and research supporting app design.
This field poses as a design field, but it sits at the intersection of psychology, technology, user experience design, and neuroscience.
Tristan Harris, a former Google design ethicist, highlighted a pivotal moment in this field: BJ Fogg’s class on Persuasive Technology (once taught at Stanford University) when Harris was a student.
Fogg’s research on human behaviour and its applications to technology design marked a seminal inflexion point for the world of app design, influencing practices that persist to this day.
Among the classes BJ Fogg taught at Stanford was one co-taught with Dave McClure on building Facebook applications. In this course, 50 students teamed up to produce 25 applications, with two of these apps projected to break 1 million installs in just a few days.
Intrigued? I am, too.
Here’s what I’ve uncovered about what Stanford students learned in BJ Fogg’s influential class.
The Fogg Behaviour Model (FBM)
A framework to explain how human behaviour occurs. Its central claim is behaviours happen when three elements converge simultaneously: Motivation, Ability, and Prompt.
B=MAP (Behaviour = Motivation, Ability, Prompt)
Motivation: The desire to perform the behaviour
Three Core Motivators:
Sensation (pleasure/pain): refers to the physical drivers of motivation and is based on the pursuit of pleasure or pain
Pleasure: is the positive side of sensation, which involves seeking out positive physical experiences or feelings.
Examples: a taste of delicious food, the rush of endorphins after exercise, the comfort of a warm bath, dopamine rush from likes and engagement on an app
Pain: is the negative side of sensation, which involves avoiding or escaping from negative experiences.
Examples: avoiding injury, escaping from uncomfortable situations, relieving physical discomfort, nursing feelings of loneliness with digital engagements and interactions
Anticipation (hope/fear): relates to emotional drivers of motivation and is based on hope and fear about future outcomes
Hope: is the positive side of anticipation, which involves looking forward to positive future outcomes.
Examples: excitement about an upcoming vacation, anticipation of a promotion at work, expectation of achieving a personal goal, enthusiasm for anticipated likes and followers (for social validation)
Fear: is the negative side of anticipation, which involves worrying about or trying to prevent adverse future outcomes.
Examples include: fear of failure, anxiety about potential health issues, concern about financial instability, fear of missing out (FOMO)
Belonging (social acceptance/rejection): refers to social drivers of motivation and is based on our need for social acceptance and avoidance of rejection
Social Acceptance: is the positive side of belonging, which involves seeking inclusion, approval, and status within social groups.
Examples: the desire for recognition from peers, striving for a sense of community, and seeking to improve social status.
Social Rejection: is the negative side of belonging, which involves avoiding exclusion, disapproval, or loss of status.
Examples: fear of being ostracised, avoiding social embarrassment, concern about losing respect from others.
Ability: The capacity to perform the behaviour
The Six Simplicity Factors help to create a framework for making a task easier, which increases the likelihood of the desired behaviour occurring.
Time: relates to the amount of time required to complete a task, making a task easier and quicker to complete, simplifies and increasing its accessibility
Examples: a large bottle of water by your desk to encourage more drinking, one-click purchasing on e-commerce sites to reduce the time to make a purchase, auto-play on streaming services to make continuing to watch simpler
Money: involves the financial cost associated with the behaviour, reducing or eliminating costs makes a task simpler
Examples: activities by donation, offering free trials for software to make it easier for users to try the product (i.e. lower barrier to entry)
Physical Effort: refers to the amount of physical exertion required to perform the task; minimising physical effort increases the simplicity of action/behaviour
Examples: running on the treadmill at home versus running outside or at a gym, automatic doors to make entering a building easier, the number of swipes/steps it takes to get to a desired destination on an app
Brain Cycles: relates to the mental effort or cognitive load required to complete a task, reducing the need for complex thinking or decision-making increases simplicity
Examples: wearing the same outfit daily, pre-filled forms or autocomplete features reduce the mental effort needed to fill out online applications
Social Deviance: is the social acceptability of the behaviour, actions that go against social norms are considered more difficult
Examples: nudist beaches are enjoyed by some but is still considered taboo for many, the 1-5% auto-filter on TikTok subverts people on using a filter
Non-Routine: relates to how much the behaviour deviates from one’s normal routine, tasks that fit into existing routines are simpler than those that require new habits
Examples: flossing after brushing teeth, people are already using their phones everyday, by injecting a timely prompt, users are encouraged to use an app (i.e. habit stacking)
Prompt: A trigger that initiates the behaviour
Types of Prompts: a crucial element that triggers or initiates a behaviour is sometimes referred to as a ‘trigger’ or ‘cue.’ A prompt is a trigger, reminder, or signal to nudge a person towards performing a specific behaviour at a particular moment.
Spark: used when a person lacks motivation but has the ability to perform the behaviour, combines a trigger with a motivational element
Example: a person has the ability to run, they have shoes, clothes and time, but needs a motivational quote to remind them of their goals; a fitness app sending an inspiring message along with a reminder to exercise
Facilitator: used when a person has high motivation but lacks ability, a facilitator can help to make the behaviour easier to accomplish
Example: person desires to eat more healthily, but requires a meal planning app that provides simple recipes and a grocery list; or a one-click purchase button on an e-commerce site
Signal: used when a person has both the motivation and ability to perform behaviour, serves as a simple reminder
Example: setting a reminder to drink water every half hour; or a timely morning notification to set aside time for meditation
Characteristics of Effective Prompts: for a prompt to be effective it should be:
Noticeable: the user must be aware of the prompt
Example: a post-it note on the bathroom mirror to create a moment for gratitude each day, or a colourful notification with distinct sound pairings
Associated: it should be clearly linked to the target behaviour
Example: leaving the house keys by the door, or the ease of clicking into the notification to visit the app or check the specific email
Timely: it should occur at a moment when the user can act immediately
Example: an alarm at the time of waking or a wearable device prompting users to move after periods of inactivity
When we start to scratch the surface and start to observe the details of BJ Fogg’s Persuasive Technology curriculum, we begin to understand the foundation of how precise application design has become over the years.
This unique skill set combines neuroscience, psychology, and user experience design in a way that far surpasses our comprehension as average everyday consumers—or, indeed, any human, for that matter.
Our central thesis as a species needs to change.
We need to shift away from the profits and power above all else mentality.
As nothing about app design is accidental. While advancements in human behaviour research are worth celebrating, their application to user experience design requires more guardrails, especially its ethical implications.
The more sophisticated the company, the more resources it can allocate to well-researched approaches. Users, especially adolescents, are left defenceless against the hacking methods. This leads to more serious implications and requires more accountability, especially in protection of hacking consumers brains. As we’re not only talking about altering neural pathways, we’re also altering the trajectory of human evolution, too.
Are we ready to surrender responsibility for such important matters to tech giants and technology empires?
Catch up on past editions…
Day 007. Breaking the Scroll: 91 Days Off Social Media & Rediscovering Life IRL
📢❗🚨 Day 007 of this special series in October. 📢❗🚨
Day 006. Breaking the Scroll: 91 Days Off Social Media & Rediscovering Life IRL
📢❗🚨 Day 006 of this special series in October. 📢❗🚨
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