Module Report DB305 Persuasive Technology
Written by Vivek Devaraj Ruben van Dijk Pepijn Verburg Yang Yu
Lectured by dr.ir. M.M. Bekker dr.ir. H.A. van Essen Dated on March 2015
INTRODUCTION This report puts forward the design process of creating a concept to increase the amount of social interaction between staff members within the Department of Industrial Design at the Technical University Eindhoven. A system was designed that allows people to greet each other in the corridor when they are walking alone. Through Reciprocation and Liking (Cialdini, 2001) people are persuaded to respond to a recorded greeting of someone else. Tailored Suggestions and Reminders (Oinas-Kukkonen, 2012) provide them with incentives to make the step towards a face-to-face social interaction. The system is programmed to have four phases that allows it to change its influence on the societal context. The Functional Triad (Fogg, 2002) is used to describe this process.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. DESIGN CASE
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2. USER PROFILE
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3. FIRST ITERATION
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4. SECOND ITERATION
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5. THIRD ITERATION
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6. MAPPING
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7. SCENARIO
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8. REFLECTIONS
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1. DESIGN CASE The goal of this project is to design a system, service or product to persuade people to engage in social activities for a sense of bonding and connectedness within the context of the the Industrial Design Department. The learning objective is to use theories from the field of psychology and persuasive technology to guide the design process.
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Official description The lecturers provided the team with a description of the design case: “Imagine people in a work context, such as in a company or the staff at the ID department. The design case challenge is to design a solution that motivates people to have face to face contact during the workday. It is important for people to have a sense of what other people are working on, and also to have some sense of the ‘personal life’ of colleagues.
Context Within the ID department there is a strong need for collaboration between research groups. The themes provided such a mechanism. However, this mechanism is rather static and therefore the department might need other solutions. The team set a goal to increase the amount of collaboration by facilitating social interactions. The assumption is that, from social interactions collaboration will automatically arise.
Furthermore, when combining knowledge of different people can create innovative ideas. Some things to consider are: How can you create a solution that motivates people to stay socially in contact with people at their workplace, even though they might be really busy and do a lot of desk work. What information can be relevant to motivate people to make contact? How do people coordinate the interaction about workplace related practices?”
Definitions (1) Social interaction: a verbal in-depth conversation with significant impact on someone’s daily activities.
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2. USER PROFILE Within the ID department there is a big variety of different people. This project will mainly focus on the staff members divided in two groups: junior employees and senior employees. The table shows the differences between these groups.
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Junior Employee 1. Is open to social interaction 2. Has innovative and crazy ideas 3. Needs a mentor for these ideas 4. Has the need to make initial connections with research group 5. Wants to expand social network, both personal and professional 6. Doesn’t know many people, including their expertise 7. Could use help of other experts 8. Is not familiar with the standard walking routes 9. Has the intention to extend their network 10. Curious to what is happening in the department 11. Is flexible in shifting the focus to other subjects 12. Is happy to put extra effort to maintain a social contact
Senior Employee 1. Is open to social interaction 2. Expects a value on the short-term out of social contacts 3. Is very time-conscious 4. Is open to innovative ideas 5. Knows the research group well 6. Has a busy schedule 7. Wants the department to grow as a community 8. Has a high authority and is well respected 9. Thinks he knows what is going on in the department and what the expertises are 10. Focuses on a subject for a longer period 11. Walks the same route every time 12. Is keen on inspiring other people 13. Already has a big network of people
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3. FIRST ITERATION The first iteration used the theory of the six key persuasive principles from the book Influence (Cialdini, 2001). The theory functioned as a method of ideation. Each principle has been considered individually resulting in an array of ideas. A top three of the ideas was chosen to be described more into depth.
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Persuasive intent The initial intent was defined as following: increase the social interaction between staff members in-between research groups by facilitating informal social events. Ideas Each of the six principles proved to be useful to think of ideas. The three ideas listed below were chosen for further development. E-shadow The e-shadow wall allows users to leave a simple greeting message when they are walking in the corridor. The system records the user when walking by and invites to say hi. When an initial greeting of someone has been received the system will show the greeting to other people. This creates a virtual representation of what has already happened in the corridor. The message appeals to the natural reflex of humans to say hi back when someone greets you (Reciprocation Principle) and creates an indirect moment of seeing each other (Liking Principle). Skill Board This interactive screen is placed near the entrance of the Laplace building and asks
people about their expertise and if they are willing to help others through subtle questions. It is expected that people are likely to help each other (Reciprocation Principle) when they are initially asked about their expertise (Commitment & Consistency Principle). Social Cups With the Social Cups concept each research group has a specific cup available. The goal is to collect a diverse set of cups during the week by exchanging cups of coffee between the groups. The winner proves itself to have a significant amount of connections with the other groups (Social Proof Principle) and is able to make a collection out of the limited amount of cups available (Scarcity Principle). Discussion The Six Persuasive Principles (Cialdini, 2001) have proven themselves to be useful for ideation and conceptualization when designing for social interactions. Still, it was hard to think of physical products, because the theory focuses on human processes rather than design. This is where the team clearly noticed it originates from the field of Social Psychology. 9
4. SECOND ITERATION The second iteration was executed using the theory of the functional triad of B.J. Fogg (Fogg, 2002). The perspectives were studied individually and eventually discussed together. At first the perspective of the Social Actor seemed to fit our e-shadow concept best, because the intent was to increase the amount of verbal face-to-face interactions. Because the group experienced this theory offered possibilities for the e-shadow concept, this concept was chosen to move on with. While discussing a specific idea for the concept, also the Tool and Medium perspective turned out to be applicable. From this moment the perspectives were used to decide whether a design idea would contribute to the persuasive intent or not.
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Persuasive intent One of the feedback remarks which was obtained after the first presentation was to define the persuasive intent more specific. For the second iteration we used the following intent as a guideline for our design concept: increase the social interaction between staff members of different research groups by means of impactful verbal communication or by facilitating informal social events. Design rationale Next to the persuasive intent, also the design concept needed to become more explicit. This was achieved by discussing the different steps within the e-shadow concept, and defining its phases: Initialization, Priming and Connecting. The phases were mapped with the framework to get an overview of the design rationale. Initialization During the initialization phase the e-shadow system plays the role of a tool to tailor the initial message by using the ID employees name. Furthermore it acts like a social actor by using “spoken” language. This message is displayed when an ID employee walks by the e-shadow system. The system needs a first recording of a ID employee saying “Hi” which can
be used to greet other ID employees. It uses face recognition to generate a personal greeting, e.g. “Hi, James!”. The system expects a “Hi” back without a name added to it back which it records. Once the first ID employee responds in the intended way, the record can be used to greet other ID employees. Priming In the priming phase the system plays the “Hi” recording when an ID employee walks by the system to facilitate the liking aspect of the Influence theory, by making people familiar with each other. The system achieves this by serving as a medium to virtually simulate an environment in which a greeting ID employee is presented. Also the system was considered as a Social Actor because it uses a physical (recorded) representation of the human body to achieve the intended behavior.
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Connecting During the last phase the system acts as a tool again to suggest meeting subjects and therefore reasons to have a chat when ID employees meet each other in reality. In addition to the same recording which is displayed during the priming phase, it displays another layer of text on top of it containing the subjects. Once two ID employees will meet each other by accident, or will visit eachare other Paragraphs thebecause building blocks of papers. Many students of the subjects, they can discuss thoseof length: a paragraph is a group define paragraphs in terms subjects. In a sense the connecting phase of at least five sentences, a paragraph is half a page long, etc. is the final phase in which the intended In reality, though, the unity and coherence of ideas among behavior is accomplished. sentences is what constitutes a paragraph. A paragraph is defined as Discussion During the second iteration the theory was applied by using the perspectives to decide whether a design idea has a persuasive factor. In this way the theory served as a guide to determine how the concept could achieve it’s role as a behaviour changer best.
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5. THIRD ITERATION The goal of the third iteration is to integrate multiple theories to substantiate the final concept. A total of three theories helped the team to determine the design decisions: The Functional Triad (Fogg, 2002), Six Persuasive Principles (Cialdini, 2001) and Behavior Change Support Systems (Oinas-Kukkonen, 2012).
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Technical assumptions Feedback on the second iteration suggested to specify the technicalities of the concept more into-depth to clarify its functionalities. This paragraph briefly summarizes the technical assumptions. The interface has the capability to record and play video snippets with face and gesture recognition.
Design rationale The design rationale is based on the second iteration. Several aspects are changed according to feedback, new theories and more in-depth information specifying nuances. First of all, a total of four phases are implemented: (1) initialisation, (2) familiarisation, (3) priming and (4) connecting.
The system is connected to TU/e database and social media of users. Users subscribe to this system and also set the preference on data access , data usage and connection level (Personal, Professional).
Initialisation The first phase is identical to the second iteration.
Certain trend and pattern recognition engine is used to track user pattern and determine optimum pairing. The system follows rules to familiarise people with different ID group and also suggests connections for people from same network to meet-up (example: suggestion to delay/prepone the coffee break to align with another friend).The system will be placed in corridors next to each ID group.
Familiarisation The team decided during the familiarisation phase the system isn’t a Social Actor, because the recording should only be classified as an Environment Simulation. Direct recordings of a person doesn’t present a system in a way like a Social Actor. Priming During the priming phase information is shown about the person on the screen (e.g. publications, recent projects). This provides a tailored suggestion to the user (Oinas-Kukkonen, 2012).
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Connecting The fourth phase consists of two types of connecting people. The first type is about person to person communication also giving a tailored suggestion (OinasKukkonen, 2012).
a tailored suggestion). The team thinks that it has been of great value that each theory allows a different perspective on the final concept where in the end they complement each other.
The expert meeting helped to understand The second type is more of an informal that the persuasive intent should not nature proposing possible social events be too general and big, because it will to go to in a suggestive and reminding influence the design and it will become manner (Oinas-Kukkonen, 2012). For blocks tooofobvious thestudents users. If you keep it Paragraphs are the building papers. for Many example, coffee breaks or lunch meetings. modest, it is moreis a likely to achieve the define paragraphs in terms of length: a paragraph group intended behaviour and therefore also of at least five sentences, a paragraph is half a page long, etc. Discussion the ultimate goal. In reality, though, the unity and coherence of ideas among After mapping the theories onto the final is what constitutes paragraph. A paragraph is concept the sentences team realized each one of a The expert also helped to understand that defined as them specifies one particular aspect. First on the long term products and systems of all, the Functional Triad (Fogg, 2002) need to develop and adapt as well in describes the nature of the system and order to keep the intended behavior and answers how it presents its information to not become boring. (e.g. in the form of a virtual environment). Secondly, the Six Key Persuasive Principles from Influence (Cialdini, 2001) give insight in what kind of social relationships the user has with the system (e.g. through reciprocation). And finally, the Behaviour Change Support Systems theory (Oinas-Kukkonen, 2012) defines what benefits the user gets out of this social relationship (e.g. 16
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6. MAPPING This chapter gives an overview of how the phases are linked with the different theories put forward along this report.
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initialisation
familiarisation
priming
connecting
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7. SCENARIO This chapter visually presents the final scenario along with the corresponding phases.
1. initialisation 20
2. familiarisation
2. familiarisation
3. priming
4. connecting
5. social interaction 21
8. REFLECTIONS Yang Yu
Learning goals I chose this module as my FMP relates to improve the quality of people’s sleep. To some extend, it need to change people’s behavior. So I want to learn more about persuasive technology and see if I can use it in my project. Ideation This module inspired me a new way of ideation, combining design with specific persuasive principles. It was my first time to think deeply about the influence of psychology issues in design and I found it was such important for a persuasive product or system. It reminded me to consider a design concept both from short term but also long term, as it aimed to change behavior which includes different stages in the process.These principles also clearly gave us a guideline to define a concept from persuasive technology, for example, how to make a specific design decision, some aspects whether we could ignore or not. For me, in this module,I changed the the normal way of ideation, 22
analyzing about the meanings of theories and try to transfer it into design in each stages. It worked well although I am not that familiar with this way. Persuasive technology I really liked this module as we could apply the theories in a real context and to see how it worked and what we could reflect. In our team we mainly used Functional Triad, Influence and Behavior Change Support System. We combined them together in different stages. We used some of them to create a new design opportunity and some of them to evaluate the design. It worked well and we also saw some similarity between them. For me, as sometimes theory may limit the ideation,but in this case, with combination of different theories and principles, the design was reached. The theories and principles supplied references that I could use for my FMP which I really need. However, I need to read and learn more about other theories and principles. Also, I need to see how these persuasive theories could cooperate with other methods
in design such as emotional design. In this module, I realised the hardness and importance of the definition of persuasive intent. For my own project, I need to make it more specific and always link it to the design process.
persuasive. In my future design processes I want to take my ideas (back) to the theory to see how they add value as a persuasive factor, and if it fits to the persuasive intent.
Learning goals I chose this module because I wanted to learn how to apply persuasive technology theory to design persuasive products that change the behavior of people to make them healthier. In this way I mainly want to develop my user focus and perspective and design and research methods competencies.
One of the other ideas was to place cameras in multiple areas of the building including the toilet, to track people. I wondered whether it is ethical to follow persons to achieve persuasive intent, even if it is for their own good. I think I should actively consider if my designs are ethically justified. In future I could discuss the persuasive intent and what data I want to collect with the target group, or consider the ethics before taking design decisions.
Bridging theory and design During the concept development an idea arise to let the system give suggestions to its users. By trying to fit this idea in the framework of Foggs functional triad the conclusion was that this could function as a tool. Therefore it was considered as a good design decision. I noticed that the theory, frameworks and its perspectives can be used to make design decisions. In general, I think that when I am designing for persuasive intent the theory and frameworks can serve as guides to make design decisions that make my design
In a group discussion a car menu was used as an example of an existing product to compare our own concept with. It chunks its info in order to make it readable because it is in the peripheral view of the driver. This was also applicable in the design concept of the group. I realized that comparing the concept with existing products helps to solve design problems. In general I think that existing products can be used for similar principles. It is hard to prove that implementing a similar aspect works in my product too, but the chance is bigger because it follows the same
Ruben van Dijk
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principles. Furthermore, comparing with other products can be used to evaluate the effectiveness. In the future I want to look at other health coaching products and how they are changing the behavior of people related to their health.
with the product and understand how it will affect people. Different theories have different points of view which can be used in different phases of the design process. In future projects I want to use the theory to look from my products point of view to generate new design ideas and make decisions.
I used examples from Cialdinis theory of Influence and translated them to ideas (e.g. use authority to display an Finally, in the expert evaluation the ID employeesParagraphs boss sayingare that hebuilding or she blocks persuasive intentstudents was discussed, the of papers. Many should do something). I noticed thatof length: especially to what extent the intent define paragraphs in terms a paragraph is a group switching between reading theory and should be defined. From the experts of at least five sentences, a paragraph is half a page long, etc. coming up with design ideas drives the answer I understood that a more general In reality, though, the unity and coherence of ideas among brainstorm and ideation process. Also it and ultimate persuasive intent (e.g. make sentences is what constitutes a paragraph. paragraph is to obvious stimulates the teamwork. I think Cialdinis people moreA social) will lead definedand as boring design in which everybody will Influence theory and probably also other theories can be used as an inspiration be aware of persuasive intent. A modest source to relate given examples to my and more specific persuasive intent will own design case. In my future projects strengthen the design concept and will I want to translate provided Influence help to achieve the ultimate goal. Overall, situations in the theory to scenarios in my I think a specific, modest persuasive intent projects. helps to achieve the intended behavior faster. In my future projects I want to focus When developing the concept using more on specific health related factors Foggs Functional Triad I looked from the rather than the goal to improve the health perspective of a social actor. I experienced of people in general. that Foggs Triad can be used to look from the systems point of view, to imagine myself in the role of the product and understand how the product interacts. I think the theory can be used to empathize 24
Vivek Devaraj
Goal Learn about the theories associated with persuasion for behavior change through design. Acquire practical experience on relating theories and design. As an automotive engineer working in Human Machine Interfaces of next generation trucks, this module offered me a crucial link to bridging design development, validation and theory. Apart from the introduction to multiple theories and framework, I also gained firsthand experience of co-developing a design concept. It also led way to work with designers and analyze their thought process to mine. I am happy that I was able to contribute significantly to the team output in terms of new concepts and providing depth to proposed concepts. Over the week, I learnt that the frameworks are very useful in guiding the concept development and by understanding multiple theories, it is possible to generate better ideas and interaction right from ideation. I understood how the role of theory and framework was continuously redefined in our team activity and the flexibility it provided in developing the concept.
I was able to compare and draw inspiration from existing social tools and how they persuade people to keep using them. One such example was Facebook and we figured out that persuasion shouldn’t be forced but should be designed as more suggesting and recommending. This was also one of the crucial points discussed in framework from Kukkonen. I can see that the theories we chose as a group has formed a mental framework in my mind that I will use to develop my ideas for my thesis. It was very interesting at the same time tricky to limit the development to context. Especially as the Functional Triad and Influence principles were elaborative and that lead to adding of features to the proposed system that made it quite complex and technically demanding. I would also like to read about the other theories and try to map my concept features to existing classifications. This also gives an assurance that I am taking the right design approach. Another important aspect I understood is the importance of sustaining the effect of the system especially persuasion concepts that are present at point of decision making (affecting the momentary decision making) rather 25
than inducing a complete personality change. The importance in choosing the right persuasive intent was also learnt as that lead way to the development of the concept.
case requires such a theoretical basis; a good example is designing for persuasion.
Persuasion My initial interest for this module came from my background and focus in psychology; I am now aware of the design choices that mainly in developmental and cognitive I am responsible as a developer and also psychology. I was expecting a lot of their impact on the total persuasion effect overlapping theories, but this module on the user. Apart from the module goals, surprised me. I’ve gained knowledge of it was also aParagraphs great experience working blocks a thorough of theories are the building of papers.set Many studentsthat are easy with ID students andparagraphs observing their wayof length: to apply in the design process. During the define in terms a paragraph is a group of development of a system. module I came to realize the way you are of at least five sentences, a paragraph is half a page long, etc. expressing these principles in your design In reality, though, the unity and coherence of ideas among Pepijn Verburg is crucial. For example, it is easy to provide sentences is what constitutes a paragraph. Atoparagraph Theory-driven design information the useris representing definedauthority. as I’ve come to realize theories and Still, I find it difficult how this frameworks can function as a source of authority is expressed. The ‘apparent’ inspiration for a design process. Mainly authority is something not well defined. the books Influence and Persuasive I think esthetics play a big role in this. Technology have proven themselves to be Finding an answer is the perfect job for useful for this. During the design process I a designer and I see a great opportunity noticed it was not only from theory to ideas in exploring this during future projects (for initial direction), but also from ideas to involving persuasion. theories (for verification). An alternation took place between these processes. Also, what I’m still missing with these This was one of the topics of the expert theories are the underlying cognitive evaluation and such an alternation is seen processes. I think the books provide more as normal in the eyes of the expert. My in-depth information about this. However, current projects mainly did not apply the I came to realize that these underlying process of theory to ideas. I can see this processes are not necessarily needed method works very well when the design during the design process. Sometimes 26
I need to remember myself to not focus too much on the field of psychology rather than on the field of design. This module has proven that applying theories from psychology doesn’t imply in-depth understanding of each theory. It is probably more worthwhile to explore a big variety of theories and make a selection out of those.
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