No, this isn’t another reference to the TV series LOST. This is the online world of Club Penguin, where millions of young children waddle around as cartoon penguin-avatars in a winter-set virtual world. You can play games, earn points and decorate your igloo. And the imminent arrival of pirate penguin Rockhopper is all my boys can talk about. Apparently with each arrival he brings rare new gifts (once he introduced a new breed of red Puffles, the fluffy little creatures you take care of). He’s a seafaring Santa Clause to the world of Club Penguin.

Disney's Club Penguin

Plenty could be said here about self-expression, scarcity, achievements or other psychological principles which–trust me–work just as well on adults as they do on penguin playing kids. Instead, let’s focus on one idea I’ve never seen discussed: periodic events. Why is the Rockhopper narrative, and dozens of similar storylines, so enthralling? And what does this kind of a recurring event do for a community?

The significance of rituals

Think of the shared, recurring events you celebrate. Perhaps Christmas with family? A Tuesday afternoon happy hour with friends from work? Maybe there’s a birthday next month or a monthly book club discussion. Our lives are filled with these recurring beats. There is a rhythm to our lives. From the natural (breathing, seasons, menstrual cycles) to the invented (Summer break, national holidays, new movie releases), we are entertained by these periodic events. Rituals and tradition give our lives momentum. Why is this important, psychologically? These events unite people. They are a shared experience through which people can gather together. They are a chance for similar people to congregate. And even if we have very little in common with the other people, the rituals offer something to do together. Through shared, recurring events, we feel a sense of belonging. And there’s more, these rituals give us something to look forward to. There is variety in an otherwise repetitive routine. From week to week, or year after year, there is continuity, comfort, and heightened anticipation.

Business Rituals

Businesses are no exception. You have quarterly earnings reports. There’s also an annual review. Blood drives come around from time to time. There’s the annual holiday party in December. Budgets are set on a yearly basis. Even the work day is punctuated by regular breaks. Maybe there’s a team lunch on Fridays. Periodic events are present in just about every area of our lives. And all these things work in a subtle way to unite us. The events I share at one company may not translate to another office, but within that one company, they are something we can share. These recurring events create sustained interest, anticipation and a sense of belonging.

MIA Online?

So now, let me ask this question: What do people have to look forward to on your site? Or in the software we use? Or in the community you’ve built? For most of us, launching and maintaining a Web site is enough of a chore. But what change is there to look forward to? Once a year, a number of sites participate in a CSS reboot, where all the styles are dropped. Some sites even commit to refresh their look on this day. This gives casual visitors– especially those who rarely visit a site, reason to come back– to see what’s new. Department stores regularly have sales, seasonal offerings and other events, yet the only online equivalent seems to be cyber Monday. Excluding scheduled maintenance outings, what do your users have to look forward to or reminisce about? Are there regular, recurring events enjoyed by all? Like Rockhopper in Club Penguin, many kids games, use a narrative structure to create events, why aren’t we doing the same in our business applications and public websites?

Some (perhaps crazy) ideas

Consider some ways that all users or groups within a system could enjoy shared recurring experiences.

Quora

• One company I worked for had a monthly speaker series that brought in such luminaries as Brian Eno, Scott McCloud and John Maeda. What if a Q&A site like Quora.com made an event out of regularly hosting recognized expert, available for an afternoon to answer any questions within their area of expertise?;
• eCommerce sites routinely offer sales, but the only shared community event is cyber Monday. What about hiding surprises at Easter? Or setting up a themed specials every few weeks? Instead of a time-based event, maybe every ‘x’ sale resulted in a discount for everyone online at the same time;
• What if my time tracking app rewarded everyone on my team with a fun, bi-weekly report on how we’re doing? Instead of a chore, time tracking could become more like the Wii Fit with regular check ins, goals and feedback;
• In ancient Israel, debts were dropped during the Jubilee year. Maybe internal organizations could declare one day of the year a “reset your inbox to zero” day. All employees email inboxes would automatically empty and you’d have a clean start (don’t freak out– this could be limited to internal emails only). Much of the group pressure that results from mounting email could be removed, as this would be a shared experience for everyone;
• Imagine a hot new startup that only allowed new members to sign up at a designated time, in pairs! If you’re friend didn’t also sign up within an hour window, both of you would have to wait until the next opportunity.

Perhaps some of these ideas sound a bit far fetched? The point of all of this isn’t utility, but engagement–with each other and with a service. We’re talking about creating delightful experiences through shared events. Consider some services that have made periodic events core to their experience:

Daily Deals

Woot.com

What would you think of an eCommerce site that only sells one item at a time? No inventory. No catalog to browse. Sound silly? Services such as Groupon and Woot have made the daily event a core part of their business. One deal. One day only. That’s it. We may rarely make a purchase from these sites, but we can’t stop coming back, you know, just in case. We’re curious– what will tomorrow’s deal be? And this approach to business leverages variable rewards; just as with slot machines, all it takes is a great deal every now and then keep us coming back to these sites (or subscribing to their daily emails).

Monthly Challenges

750words.com

750words.com is founded on one simple idea: Write at least 750 words every day for one month. The site tracks your progress with simple row of boxes, one for each day of the month. Writing at least 750 words earns you an “X” for that day. In doing so, you compete against your own best streak. How many consecutive days can you write 750 words? So where’s the periodic event? It’s the monthly reset. If you fail to write for 30 consecutive days, you can alwasy look forward to “a clean bowling-esque score card” next month. We nearing the end of January, when most of our New Year’s resolutions start to fall to the wayside. But why wait until next year to take up running or jogging again? HealthMonth(also from the same brilliant mind behind 750words.com) encourages you to make personal health goals (in the form of “do more of…” or “do less of….”) for a period of one month. You’re allowed a bit of grace and backsliding before you are out of “the game” for that month. And if you don’t succeed, don’t worry. Everyone starts over again at the 1st of the month. Why wait until next year give losing weight another shot?

Community Events

We’ve also seen periodic events emerge from community groups. Think of the #followfriday hashtag on Twitter. Or the CSS resets I mentioned earlier.

Shared TV Programming

In the era of Tivo and on-demand programming, the communal bonding around “last nights episode” seems to be waning. Time shifting TV has fragmented our conversations. But perhaps this communal relic can be brought into 21st century. I recently read about a startup that wants to “connect friends in real time while watching their favorite TV shows.” A periodic event once set at a national level by broadcasters may now be agreed upon by friends.

A (real-time) challenge:

The sites that have introduced periodic events are few and far between. Here’s my challenge: Are you giving your users a reason to come back? If not, how might you build periodic events into the systems you design or use? We’d love to hear your ideas on this concept could be applied to online interactions. Here’s what we’re going to do: All your comments and ideas will be held in a queue. One week from today, we’ll publish all your suggestions. See you in a week?

UX Lisbon 2011

Stephen Anderson will be a keynote speaker at UX Lx: User Experience Lisbon, one of Europe’s premier user experience events. The second annual UX Lx conference takes place May 11-13, 2011 in Lisbon, Portugal.

As interaction designers, we’re keenly aware of the explicit meanings in words and images. But how many of us also focus on the what is suggested by our words and images?

What does a "base camp" make you think of?

Consider Basecamp. For a project management tool aimed at “the Fortune 5,000,000,” it would be difficult to find a better a product name than “Basecamp.” With one simple word, so much is suggested: A base camp is the safe place from which to plan your trek to the summit. Base camps are positioned to be safe from the harsher conditions above. It’s where you return to. And think of the folks who’d be staying in a base camp—likely a small, adventurous team. It’s the perfect product name to appeal to the small businesses who use 37 Signals’ project management tool.

We’re all keenly aware of the explicit meanings in words and images—we talk ad nauseam about everything from clean button labels to accessible content. But how many of us also focus on what is suggested by our words and images?

Great poets are masters of imagery. Skilled speakers know how to phrase and frame their arguments in a way that is difficult for their listeners to resist. Artists and comedians thrive or fail based on our ability to connect the dots. Words, images, animations—these elements all work on a suggestive level that (whether we’re aware of it or not) affects our recall, judgment, and decision making.

A Little Psychology

Here’s a little trick from psychology. Let’s say we’re having a conversation and I want to nudge the conversation in a certain direction; I want to influence what comes to mind for you. To do this, I might try using associative priming. Basically, I’ll tell a few stories or inject specific language into our conversation that your brain will pick up on, bringing associated mental objects into short term memory. A few minutes later, I might ask you a certain question. If I’ve done a good job at priming, there’s a good chance I can predict how you might respond (I suspect this is one way magicians are able to predict what someone is thinking!).

For example, let’s suppose I asked you to name some kinds of “blue boxes.” If a few minutes earlier we had been talking about wedding bands and jewelry, you’re much more likely to think of Tiffany’s blue box. If instead we were talking about science fiction and time travel, you’re much more likely to think of Doctor Who’s iconic telephone box, the Tardis. Our brains are constantly working to make associations. Assuming you’re familiar with Tiffany’s or (a riskier assumption) Doctor Who, our earlier discussion would have “primed” your brain, making it much easier for you to recall a thought or idea not entirely of your own choosing.

Here’s a simpler example: If I was to say “the dog was chasing the ____,” what word comes to mind? If you said “cat,” that’s consistent with most of the population. Our brains think and learn by associations and analogies. Even if the rest of that sentence was “squirrel” or “piece of trash being blown by the wind,” our brains are primed to think “cat” is what comes next. If you can make a reasonable guess about the associations your audience might make, priming can be a powerful tool, as evidenced by politicians and other kinds of persuasive speakers.

Most studies I’ve seen focus on linguistic priming, but what about ways we can use visuals to prime an audience?

Visual Priming and Semiotics

Classic advertisement for Panzani pasta

Our brains are trained to make associations. This is a basic way we learn and acquire knowledge, leveraging what we already know to make sense of new information. Just as specific words or phrases might trigger an association, images can do the same thing. This idea is nothing new to advertisers.

Our brains are trained to make associations. This is a basic way we learn and acquire knowledge, leveraging what we already know to make sense of new information. Just as specific words or phrases might trigger an association, images can do the same thing.

In 1964, the French philosopher Roland Barthes published his paper “The Rhetoric of Image,” which deconstructs an ad into three messages: the “linguistic” message, the “coded iconic” message and the “non-coded iconic” message. What we’re talking about here are the “coded iconic” messages associated with specific images, that is, those things suggested or associated with the literal objects pictured. In Barthes’ example, he discusses how the choice to show beautiful, fresh vegetables (and a box of pasta displaying a brand name) in a mesh grocery bag suggests freshness, plenty, and even “Italianicity” (in the yellow, green, and red of the tomato and peppers). A certain still-life aesthetic is also suggested. All in all, these are very positive brand associations. That’s nice for selling things. But how might we use this idea help us design better interactions?

When Decoration Isn’t

I’ve been working on an application focused on formal businesses meetings. I emphasize formal, as you might find this a bit burdensome for things like lunch meetings or daily standups.

'Add Meeting' form

To clearly communicate this intent, we’ve chosen design elements that evoke a more formal business atmosphere. The most overt of these is the background image used on the form page where a new meeting is added:

Although this boardroom image might be viewed as texture or decorative ornamentation, it serves a functional role in this application.

First, we’re hoping people have a favorable response to the overall feel, as this is one of the first pages encountered by new users. But beyond any perceived attractiveness, we need to communicate the intent of this Web app. Chances are, most people will skip past all but the shortest of written explanations. In the same way that microcopy, clear labels, and icons are explicit cues to help out users, we are using this image to suggest—through connotation—the kinds of meetings where we think this tool will be most valuable. We use this specific image to suggest board meetings, staff meetings, presentations to a VP, planning sessions—the kinds of formal meetings that would take place in that conference room.

Additionally, this imagery was included as a prime for the “meeting type” form field. In the event that people don’t read the microcopy that cues people as to kinds of meetings you can create, this image is our backup. It’s decoration that suggests usage. Or at least that is the intent.

Elsewhere in the same application we use a more subtle cue to suggest a degree of formality:

Accepting a request

What does the ornamental border bring to mind? Perhaps a certificate or legal contract? This is a key area of the application—asking people to accept a request made of them during the meeting. We want everything about this page, from the literal language to the associative visual elements to suggest the seriousness of this moment: You are about to make a commitment to another person, a commitment that will be visible to everyone in that meeting. Do you intend to follow through on this commitment?

To be clear, these are subtle nudges. And they may be difficult to quantify. But there’s good reason to justify these aesthetic choices, for what they say and what they suggest.

Avoiding Negative Associations

The layout and photography used by Groupon bring to mind high-end catalogs (click for a larger image)

Here’s another example from the Groupon site. For the uninitiated, Groupon offers “one ridiculously huge coupon each day, on the best things to eat, see, do and buy in [your city].” I’ve purchased gift cards for everything from a favorite Thai restaurant to an artisan cheese shop. Their daily deals are typically on the classier side—think salons, fancier restaurants and shopping. These are not closeout deals like you’d find on other “deal” sites. In fact, I believe Groupon wants to avoid any suggestion of a “cheap” deal. Consider the photography and layouts they use in their daily deals. The photography is usually top notch. And the layout style brings to mind high end catalogs.

That’s an example of positive associative priming. But here’s an interesting discovery I made while researching the site: in earlier versions of the site, Groupon used the familiar dotted line or scissor clipping design element to border their deals, a design choice that has since been dropped for a simpler solid border.

Why do you think Groupon dropped the coupon style border?

Why did they lose the scissors and the association with coupon clipping? I suspect this goes back to communicating a “value” message versus one that suggests cheap clearance. This would be an example of avoiding what for them would be a negative (cheap) association.

On that note, have you ever wondered why the original iPod Nano resembled (and was compared to) a stick of gum? Think about how that association might have shaped perceptions.

Concept Models and Metaphors

Visual priming is also a powerful tool in print contexts. Below is a poster I created to explain The Fundamentals of Experience Design. The content of the model should, in and of itself, be fascinating, but that’s not what attracted people to this poster. No, what people found most striking about this was the floating chunk of earth.

On the surface, it is a fairly intriguing image. But what associations come to mind? Conceptually, this functions the same way as the cliché iceberg model we see everywhere—there is the obvious stuff everyone sees, and below that the critical stuff that gets overlooked. But if we consider this visual metaphor a bit more, we might also think about the roots. An experience (the grass above) that has no roots is likely to result in tumbleweeds. However, the deeper our roots go, the stronger our foundation. These are good associations. Beyond the conceptual suggestions, though, consider the style of the illustration. Does it resemble technical illustrations you might find in an academic textbook? Not a bad association if you wanted your ideas to be taken seriously!

I could go on, but you get the idea: The images we use, the words we choose– whether we’re aware of it or not, they function at an associative level that can (if given conscious attention) work in our favor. What are you suggesting?

UX London 2010

This is just one of many such ideas from psychology that Stephen will be sharing at the UX London conference (May 19-21), in both his Seductive Interactions talk and his Concept Models Workshop.

People love statistics, especially about themselves. With the rise of personal informatics we see the question “How am I doing?” getting ever more popular. I was wondering if we could use this to create a game out of email that would make life easier and happier at the same time.I’ve recently become interested in sites that answer the question:
“How am I doing?” Apparently so have a few other people…

New startups offer to help individuals improve their performance— in a variety of areas: Rypple helps individuals improve themselves professionally through peer feedback. Klout helps people realize the effect and reach of their tweets. Dopplr lets us track our travels (and our carbon footprint). iPhone apps like trackyourhappiness.org produce a happiness report based on simple self-reporting. According to Hunch, I’m “an optimist” (based on answers to hundreds of microquestions). And, the app I’m currently working on is designed to help people follow through on commitments.

But what about business applications like email, time tracking or  business intelligence applications? Is there a place in this “buttoned-up” world for these same kinds of personal feedback loops?

A little perspective

If we step back from software and Web apps, the idea of tracking performance is nothing new. Baseball cards reveal every numeric detail of player’s performance. Schools grade students’ performance. And many people routinely track their diets and workouts. Even in an agricultural society, having a good or bad harvest is the ultimate comment on how well a farmer did that season. But technology is making it easier to passively monitor personal details we couldn’t monitor just a few decades ago.

Where games like Pac Man rewarded us with various fruits, more intricate games like Guitar Hero break down our every action: percentage of correct notes, longest streak, breakdown of success by parts of a song– the list goes on! Through this report, you quickly learn–or confirm–which sections you need to work more on (and you can find out just how close you are to being a rock deity). But those are games, right?

What about hypermiling? For the first time in my life, I’m conscientiously tracking my gas mileage. I’m really curious to see if my diesel car can attain the advertised 56 MPG (or at least something in the 40ish range). Thanks to a couple of iPhone apps, I can track any number of automotive details. This is also the first car I’ve owned that displays real-time MPG feedback. The result? I’m learning to adjust my street driving (slower starts, coasting at times) to improve overall gas mileage.

167 miles per gallon?! (Some coasting may have been involved...)

Is hypermiling a game? Does this really even matter?

“Serious Games”

What we’re really talking about is setting up systems whereby individuals can (1) see in a tangible way (2) reflect on, and (3) learn from their past behaviors. Think about what Mint is doing for personal finances, or Nike+ for workouts.

From report cards to Pac Man– we’re talking about the same thing: feedback loops that affect future performance.

Through personal informatics or competitive scoreboards, when someone (or something) holds up a mirror to our behaviors, we gain information to help us improve in that area. Consider twitter. I think it’s something as simple as twitter’s follower count (and now list count) that has made this “How am I doing?” concept top of mind for many people. I mentioned hypermiling earlier. And we’re seeing new devices to help us monitor energy usage in the home. But why aren’t these same kinds of feedback loops more common in everything from invoicing tools to email apps? Why doesn’t email have a scoreboard? Seem far fetched? We’re talking about individuals– we respond to the same psychological nudges, whether we’re working or playing.

Making a game out of email

“Okay,” you’re saying, “interesting ideas but how might we apply these ‘numeric nudges’ apply to a more serious subject?

To test my hypothesis– that yes, “serious” applications can be playful– let’s go through the process I’d use to transform email. Starting with the stated goal of “inbox zero,” let’s design a system that might help us become better email players. Let’s create The Game of Email.

1. Identify specific behavior patterns to encourage (or discourage)

What behaviors do you want to change? Is there a behavior you want to see more? Maybe it’s a bad habit you’d like to eliminate? For some applications, identifying this can be challenging. Fortunately with our example, thousands of bloggers and self-help gurus have already identified both good and bad email habits and translated these into helpful tips like:

• Never open an email twice;
• Read emails in the order they were received;
• Answer briefly;
• Respond in a timely manner;
• Only check email twice a day (or once an hour);
• …and so on.

We’ll build on these tips for our little email game.

2. Translate desired behavior patterns into data that can be passively tracked and measured

Once you’ve identified (and prioritized) specific behaviors to influence, let’s see if these can translate into specific data that can be passively monitored by the system. Sometimes, translating an idea is straightforward: With something like “respond in a timely manner” we can start a timer from either the moment an email is received or opened for the first time. Be careful though, depending on your context, even a simple translation like this may need to factor in things like business days or adjusting what “timely manner” means to various people.

You don

The biggest challenge you’ll find is with tracking qualitative behaviors. For example, if I wanted to know how clearly I’m communicating in my emails– that is much more difficult to measure compared to simply tracking if or when I responded to an email. That said, tracking qualitative achievement is possible when we introduce a social layer, something I’ll mention below.

3. Attach points to these behaviors
Now that we’ve identified the behaviors we want to encourage, and determined how to track those behaviors, let’s recognize them. We’re going to award and deduct points for the behaviors listed above; points earned will form the basis of our scoring system.

Using “never open an email twice” as an example, a good system would encourage you to:

• Read and delete;
• Read and respond;
• Read and file, or;
• discard (without reading).

So, we offer helpful text to remind people of these 4 options (think of this message as training wheels that eventually go away) and then we award points based on behavior:

• +10 points for taking action when you open email;
• 0 points for opening an email a second time;
• - 5 points for opening it a 3rd time (and so on).

If we were to create a similar point scale for the other behaviors we identified, you end up with a total number of possible points and actual points earned. So, for a specific email exchange, you might get something like this:

4. Translate points into a periodic score and other useful information
While tracking performance per email exchange is kind of interesting the first few times, this novelty gets old quickly. Think about ways you can introduce cycles into the system– an end of month reports is a great idea to see how we’re doing overall. By slicing the data in different ways, we could also learn what our average response time is to specific individuals. Or maybe we might learn what time of day (or night) is best for us to respond to emails. The possible types of reports are limited only by what you can imagine: just don’t lose sight of what is interesting and worthwhile to people.

5. Display the score in a fun way
Far too often, we have interesting data, but it’s not displayed in a way that is compelling. In this discussion of numbers and data, it’s easy to lose site of the fact that we are emotional beings; there’s a growing body of research exploring how our affect governs everything from decision making to memory. Make the time to look at the what you are revealing and determine if there is a more compelling or emotional way to present that information. Dopplr chose to represent “personal velocity” (distance traveled in a year) not as a number, but as animal that moves at approximately the same velocity. What if credit scores where represented as a hot air balloon? Or a measure of collaboration might be represented as a bee hive? Get creative with how you represent the data– our brains will thank you for that with extra attention.

6. Create Rules to Translate Data into Helpful Information
While cumulative scores and fun representations are somewhat useful, think about how you can turn specific activity patterns into helpful tips. This can be a tedious process of defining the rules and correlating messages, but the resulting personalized tips can be quite helpful:

“Ouch! You only responded to 38% of your emails in a timely fashion. This may be due to your lengthy (avg 17.4 sentences) replies. For next month, focus on shorter responses in a shorter timeframe.”

If our “score” hinted at a story, the story is explained in this text.

7. Set Challenges
Competing with oneself is a powerful motivator– if you provide something to compete against. This can be a best “winning streak,” a “top score,” the allure of “the next level” of mastery– the possibilities are endless. A boring game is one that doesn’t offer me ever increasing challenges. While mastery of email may be a challenge for some, up the ante for those who are at 100%. Decrease the time allowed to respond to incoming emails or introducing new barriers– you can no longer check emails as frequently as you did.

One interesting note here, while many games are built on a system that encourages you to “level up” as you increase experience (think Karate belts and most videogames, etc.), this assumes a beginner level. In business contexts I’ve found the analogy of a “credit score” to be more often the case; that is, you want to maintain the highest level possible, which you may or may not have been when the “game” began.

8. Add social cues
While competing against your own best score is a powerful motivator, social cues are much more powerful. “How do I compare to my peers?” What’s an “avalanche” for other people? 30 emails? 500 emails? How does their situation compare to mine and are they any better?

Imagine disclosing your “email ninja” score with others (and likewise). While there has been some heated debate about the use and abuse of leaderboards, we do like to know how we’re performing relative to other friends who are also “playing the game.” In a somewhat quantified way (or maybe something more playful, like Dopplr’s personal velocity), you could discover those folks in a similar situation to you who seem to have their act together. Maybe a “privilege” of the game is earning the status to share a tip or two with others in your “game of email” network.

9. Have fun. Make it interesting
This is a catch all for all the other fun things we haven’t even discussed! Think about pleasant surprises. Or ways to create scarcity (Attent™ with Serios™ has introduced scarcity by creating a virtual economy where you earn and spend points to increase the importance of an outbound email). In a previous article, I discussed how curiosity can motivate people to action– how could we arouse some curiosity here? What about earning privileges, such as new features or the customization opportunities that tap into our desire for self-expression. What about exchanging virtual gifts? What about injecting some humorous language…

Closing

We could go on specifying the details of The Game of Email. But you get the idea. We’re introducing feedback loops that tell me — in objective terms — how I’m performing. Not just at periodic intervals, but along the way with tight feedback loops that indicate how I’m doing now, so I can adjust and change course.

The rules are up to us. The game can be personal or social. We can layer on tons of other game mechanics (challenges, levels, variable rewards, prizes and what have you). But underneath it all, there’s a system offering me reflection on my behaviors.

Could business applications benefit from this kind of thinking? Would these numbers change anything? It’s a nudge in the right direction.

Given just a bit of information, we naturally crave more. Given a puzzle, we have to solve it. So, as interaction designers, how are we using this bit of insight into human behavior?

The hook

My wife is an expert conversationalist and master of “the hook.” By hook, I mean that simple statement, skillfully dropped in a conversation, and so intriguing you cannot help but want to know more. We can be sitting with friends discussing any topic. If the conversation begins to wane, she’ll casually work in some phrase like ”When I worked at a prison, blah blah blah…” When you did what?! And there it is: A hook so captivating you just have to know more!

Great storytellers know exactly how to turn the ordinary—a trip to the grocer—into a suspenseful story by withholding information. In new relationships, flirtation often involves some element of playful teasing, whether through conversation or more sensual revelations. And newsrooms have made a science out of crafting irresistible headlines—“Your PC might be infected!” or “Are you prepared for the tax law changes?”

We are captivated by the unanswered question. To quote JJ Abrams, creator of TV Series Lost, ”mystery demands that you stop and consider—or, at the very least, slow down and discover.”

Curious Marketing

In recent years, Hot Wheels has begun including a “mystery car” in their store shipments. Unlike all the other cars encased in clear plastic, this car is shielded by an opaque black plastic—you have no idea what kind of car is in there:

With two or three dozen hot wheels to choose from, guess which one the kids go after? Given the choice of all these “known” cars, the one that—in my experience—gets attention (and allowances) is the Mystery Car—the one that is “unknown.”

Crazy? Perhaps.  But this same bit of psychology also works on grownups.

Here is a rather interesting promotion from California Pizza Kitchen. At the end of my dinner (along with the bill) I was given the “The ’Don’t Open It’ CPK Thank You Card.”

It’s a coupon, with an interesting twist: You bring this with card you next time you come back to CPK. You’ve already won something, from a free appetizer up to $50 dollars (or more). But you don’t know what you’ve won until your next visit (see where this is going?).  The instructions are pretty clear: Whatever you do, do NOT open this or whatever you’ve won is null and void! A manager has to open this for you when you return. You are guaranteed to get something worthwhile—and this is a critical part or arousing curiosity. Coupons are too explicit—”here is your 20% off.” Scratch offs and lottery tickets are most likely to reveal nothing. Here, the fine print teases you with a list of the possible prizes. Now I’m curious: which prize have I won? This is a mystery that needs closure.

So back to my question: How are we—as interaction designers—leveraging curiosity in our designs?

A Venture into the Unknown

In writing this, I’ve been thinking about two kinds of information: “known” and “unknown” information.

As UX professionals, we excel at making things known. If it’s unknown, it’s unclear and likely to be confusing. A puzzling button label? Make it clear. An unclear process? Make it more familiar. For good reasons, we value things like (user) control, clarity and consistency. We remove uncertainty in interfaces.

But once we’ve removed all the usability potholes from a particular path, how can we reintroduce the simple thrill of driving? How can interactions be made more effective—and fun—by introducing a bit of (controlled) uncertainty?

Let’s go back to our Hot Wheels and CPK examples. Did you notice these things?

1. Some tiny bit of information makes us aware of something that is unknown. Black plastic packaging hides a toy inside, or we are presented with a mysterious card.
2. Context provides some relevance. These are kids, shopping for a toy. I’m found eating at a restaurant I presumably like.
3. Enough clues are given to help us make a judgement about the personal value of that unknown information. Kids who like Hot Wheels can infer that this car will be similar in quality and possibilities as the surrounding options. The fine print on the back of the card explains the range of possible options. Value can come in many forms: the winning lottery ticket; the satisfaction of solving a puzzle; being entertained by a story.

Information can be presented in a manner that is straightforward or curious. If we opt for the latter, we are guaranteed not only attention, but likely higher engagement as well—curiosity demands we know more! What was known information (a simple coupon or another toy car option) that might have been ignored has been converted into something unknown, something mysterious, something that demands resolution.

“Information-Gap Theory”

When we become aware of this missing information- when something changes from being known (or so we thought) to an unknown state—we become curious. This is the explanation of curiosity posed by behavioral economist George Loewenstein in his Information-Gap Theory. Loewenstein says “curiosity happens when we feel a gap in our knowledge.”

The feeling we get from these information gaps is best described as deprivation, which is critical to understanding why it is we are motivated by curiosity. In order to “eliminate the feeling of deprivation,” we seek out the missing information. This is of course ironic, considering that we routinely seek out puzzles, mystery novels and other curious situations that create this sense of deprivation. However, it’s important to note that many researchers once viewed curiosity as something aversive; a decision-theoretic view suggests we should only want to know something if it helps us make more informed decisions. Why would be attracted to something that offers no extrinsic benefit? Many other debates have surrounded curiosity: Is curiosity internally or externally stimulated? Is curiosity a primary drive, like hunger or fear? Is curiosity a state or trait? And this one: “If people like positive levels of curiosity, why do they attempt to resolve the curiosity?”

In his 1994 publication “The Psychology of Curiosity,” Lowenstein surveys the body of curiosity research, much of which occurred in the early 1960s and 70s. In doing so, he provides and backdrop by which to understand his own research and how it resolves many of the debates surrounding curiosity. Simply stated: I’m curious because there’s a gap between “what I know and what I want to know.” Two notable implications come from this perspective:

1. The intensity of curiosity correlates to the likelihood of certain information to resolve the information-gap. Loewenstein’s own tests confirmed that subjects were more curious when given parts of a greater whole—the need to complete enough of a picture puzzle in order to determine what it was (a picture of an animal) resulted in more interaction than a scenario where each block was a discrete picture.
2. Curiosity correlates with our own understanding of particular domain. The more we know about some topic, the more likely we are to focus on our own information-gaps. If I know 8 of 10 items, I’m more curious about the remaining 2 than if I only know 2 of 10 things.

Business Application?

Given that curiosity reflects a desire to close information gaps, how can we apply this to interaction design?

First, consider some business situations where you might want to motivate people through curiosity.

• You have a great product, but low adoption
• You need to get the attention of the casual visitor—you operate in a crowded space and aren’t perceived as having any differentiated value
• You’re trying to increase the number of registered users
• You have a high bounce rate—visitors aren’t coming back to your site

In each of these cases, no matter how good (or bad) you product is, people aren’t giving it the time of day. You need ways to get people’s attention—and to “nudge” their behaviors. Below are a few examples of companies making effective use of curiosity for just such a purpose:

LinkedIn

Let’s illustrate this “gap” in knowledge with a look at the professional networking site LinkedIn. One of their business goals? Sell paid accounts. Like most businesses, they have a generic description of the benefits you receive with a paid account. Think of this as “general known” information. While this information could certainly be compelling, there’s a population for whom the cost may not be worth the perceived value.

Of course, those customers with paid memberships have access to specific known information:

This is how most businesses run: “Cross the [registration / paid account / personal information ] threshold and you can have all this!” Unfortunately, this generic description of benefits is often not enough for many people.

One (of many!) things LinkedIn has done is to give you a personalized glimpse at what could be known:

Essentially, LinkedIn is teasing us with bits of relevant information: “Someone at this [specific company].” “A [specific role] at x company.” They move us into an unknown state by sharing bits of knowledge that could be fully known, as a paid member. Nothing has been given away for free—I still don’t know who looked at my profile, but I am aware of some partial knowledge that might be worthwhile to know in full. As one friend said, “If I know someone from Apple has been looking at my profile, you can bet I want to know who!”

If this partial information proves relevant and valuable, you’ll want to know more, right? In essence, they’ve created a zone of curiosity between two previously known states.

Quantcast

Quantcast does something similar, only they’ve created a much larger “zone of curiosity.” You can, with nothing required of you, get a ton of free and quite useful site metrics: traffic stats, demographic information, lists of similar sites and so on. The value to a site owner is obvious. But there’s a bit of information withheld: to get Business Activity data, you must “Get Quantified.”

What’s nice about this version of Quantcast’s call to action is what we our brains see: something being hidden from us. You can almost see through the sticker covering some data! Obviously, this is a static image—there is no live data there beneath a sticker. But we think in images and this visual affordance registers as: “Here’s a sticker. We need to know what’s underneath it. We can’t allow this knowledge to remain unknown!”

Netflix

Netflix leverages these same ideas when returning a movie rental. For Netflix, the data from your movie rental preferences is gold. Rating a movie not only improves your recommendations, but we as a collective improve the entire recommendation system. Consequently, the site is built around this idea of rating movies. So why then, would they ask you “Rate your recent return to reveal 2 movies you’ll love?”

There is an immediacy to this request—we see the empty slots where two movies will be revealed. Sure, I can rate movies and get recommendations all over the site, but there is something more immediate (and novel) about how this presented.
As with Quantcast, I see the thing I want to take action on; I’m presented—visually—with two unknowns. For the “cost” of rating this movie, I can reveal two more (hopefully interesting) movies. I can make the unknown known.

Specific Motivation

It is human to be curious. And human to pursue a mystery until it is resolved. This has motivated scientists and explorers for centuries. If teased with a bit of interesting information, we want to know more. But to be clear, what we’re talking about here is a very specific kind of curiosity.

In the early 1950s, D. E. Berlyne was one of the first researchers to propose a categorization of different types of curiosity: He identified two dimensions of curiosity: one extending between perceptual and epistemic curiosity; the other spanning specific and diversive curiosity. I’ve plotted these below with a few of examples based on my own understanding of his research.

Although Berlyne’s conception of curiosity has been challenged, it still remains the backdrop against which many subsequent curiosity studies have defined their research. I’ve found this model useful for thinking about different kinds of curiosity and clarifying which flavor of curiosity is most easily applied to interaction design.

In the context of this article, I’m referring to a perceptual-specific curiosity, one in which we confront people with very specific gaps in their knowledge in a novel manner or context. While you can certainly create “gaps” in knowledge in a variety of ways, the examples in this article are more concerned with a variety of curiosity akin to teasing.

Now what?

If you want to make someone curious, make them aware of something they don’t know. Find that information you can use to tease people. Chances are, you’re either withholding all the specific information or giving it all away. To get attention and engage the senses, look for ways to turn these direct messages into a quest to be completed. A few tips:

• Your “tease” needs to be interesting, or at least proportionate in appeal to the cost required
• Strive to make this personally relevant to your target user
• Make the promise of something worthwhile—what’s it going to cost people?
• Establish trust through other givens and context clues
• Use visuals suggest or create the immediate perception of mystery

and,

• if you’re trying to lure me with something that is given away freely elsewhere—don’t.

With that, I’m curious to see how you work these ideas into your interactions!