Fogg Behavior Model: motivation, ability, and prompts

[zakiyatasnim]

Dr. BJ Fogg founded the Persuasive Technology Lab (now renamed Behavior Design Lab) at Stanford University and has done some amazing research on behavior design.

Behavior design is where psychology, design, and technology meet — a systematic way to influence the desired behavior.

Fogg defines behavior design as a way to “computerize behavior change” and “computerize persuasion“.

Behavior design is where psychology, design, and technology canada cell phone number list meet: a systematic way to influence the desired behavior.

BJ Fogg
Fogg’s model explains that three elements must come together at the same time for a behavior to occur: motivation, ability, and prompts.

If one of those elements is missing, then the action won’t happen. In short:

B = MAP

Ability and motivation have a trade-off relationship when it comes to performing behaviors.

That’s what the curved line on the Behavior Model represents.

You can see the point when we should ask users to engage in a behavior (check our site, click this button) because they’ll be most likely to say “Yes!”.

We must design our content to increase motivation and ability to the point where a prompt will be successful.

If a design presents the prompt (trigger or call to action) before motivation and ability reach sufficiently high levels, the behavior won’t occur.

Here’s how you can account for each in your content and design.

Motivation
The most effective way to increase motivation is through strong messages that show why your product and content are relevant to your audience.

Several factors can also boost motivation, like:

status;
early access (remember Gmail?);
pleasure or pain;
hope and fear;
social acceptance and social rejection;
power;
rewards.
Take this example from Vitality insurance. Most people who visit the site already have strong motivation, and an Apple watch reward may further increase it.

Ability
Convey your message in a way that your audience understands. There are two paths to increasing ability.

The hard way is to train people to understand your message. The easier (and best) path is simplicity. Make it easy for your audience to understand what you offer and how to receive it: make your design accessible.

This leads to an important rule: if you must choose what to optimize for, always choose ability over motivation. Simplicity changes behavior.

Become a master of simplification, not motivation.

Victor S. Yocco, Design for the Mind
Simplicity is the minimally satisfying solution at the lowest cost. Simplicity has a direct connection to persuasive technology.

Technologies that make something easier to do are more likely to get people to do that thing. An obvious example is Amazon’s “Buy now with 1 click”.

Oscar’s website is a perfect example of simplicity. The health insurance company makes a complex topic accessible. The Oscar website enables ability and facilitates a central route.