Future Now
The IFTF Blog
"B.J. Fogg, ""Using computers to change what people think and do"""
Fogg is founder of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford.
Big Trends in Computing
Functionality --> Entertainment --> Ease of Use --> Networking --> Persuasion
We're now reaching tools that can help shape the way people think and what they do.
6 persuasion strategies
There really aren't new persuastion strategies; the tactics are new, though. But in the near future, computers are going to be better persuaders than humans.
- Persistence. Being nagged by your technology, usually in the interest of incremental gains.
- Fun. The sense that you're getting better at a given task. This is one reason video games are so popular: they provide instant and global feedback about how you're doing, and how good you are.
- Simplicity. Simplicity plays a big role in user emotion. By lowering cost and providing greater benefits, simplicity can give way to delight; if they raise both, that leads to frustration. It's also a good design principle for groups, as it guarantees wider participation and use. But simplicity isn't just simple: there are time, cognitive, financial, etc. factors that define what simplicity is.
- Instant gratification. This hardly requires explanation. But it explains why porn, MMPRPGs, and gambling are so big.
- Instant punishment. This can be more powerful than gratification.
- Social acceptance. We're pack creatures, and will do a lot to be connected. This wasn't a big thing in the early days of the Web, but once persistent identity became more of a norm (thanks to the likes of Slashdot and eBay), this became much more important.
Mass interpersonal persuasion
Cooperative behavior + emotional expression = interpersonal bonding
We've had mass (global and scalable) and personal persuasion, but not both together. We've also got lots of tools for cooperative behavior, but not emotional expression yet. The combination of social software and networking, the Internet, and user-created and -managed content and projects, all work to make it possible.
Yack Pack is an audio messaging tools. Voice does a great job of being personal, intimate, expressive, etc..