Psychology Behind Compelling Apps

An unfortunate truth about software is that most users don't stick with new apps very long. Sadly, there is no one secret, but addressing human psychology can make your code more compelling for users. This session examines the human psychology behind what makes some software stick and become part of our daily routine. As a developer, you need to employ these ideas when designing features you plan to implement or products you plan to launch. This session covers three separate techniques rooted in psychology you can implement to make your user's experience awesome and keep them coming back.

Transcript

1. Psychology Behind Compelling Apps David Truxall, Ph.D. http://bit.ly/app-psych
2. About Me @davetrux https://davidtruxall.com http://bit.ly/app-psych spnsurvivors.org
3. Agenda 1. Choices 2. Making Expert Users 3. Getting Users Hooked
4. The Secret to a Successful App ?
5. Cognitive Load
6. ? Cognitive Load ?
7. Choices, Choices, Choices
8. Choice is Demotivating vs
9. Choice Harms Users
10. The Paradox of Choice
11. Reduce Choices • Choose for the user whenever possible • Less than 10 options • Reward at the end
12. Login
13. Better Login
14. Ouch Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Upload_Form.png
15. Just In Time
16. Learn to Love Constraints
17. Dr. Seuss
18. Beatles - Sgt. Peppers
19. Four Track Recording
20. Expert Users
21. Users Derail Easily
22. Make Users Into Experts A Can’t Do B Can Do With Effort C Mastered
23. Make users into Experts • Help them actually get better • Help them practice correctly • Help keep them wanting to • Focus on what makes them stop • Help them progress – Provide Payoffs • Help them get exposure to the right things
24. Stalled on B A Can’t Do B Can Do With Effort C Mastered
25. Lower the Threshold
26. Reduce the task size A Can’t Do B Can Do With Effort C Mastered
27. When A User is Wrong
28. Sometimes You Can’t Close the Gap
29. Provide Channels to Help Users • Community / User Groups • Product/context blogs • YouTube videos • Posters (“everyone sucks the first day”) • New User training, seminars
30. Provide A Path
31. Reduce Cognitive Load
32. Building a Habit-Forming Product 32
33. Operant Conditioning
34. Building A Habit Frequency Attitude Change
35. Building A Habit • Frequency • Attitude change • Habits are built on layers
36. Hooked Model Trigger Action Reward Investment
37. Triggers Internal External
38. Negative Emotions Are Triggers
39. Understand your user’s narrative or story ?
40. Build A Narrative • Who is the user? • What are they doing right before your intended habit? • Find trigger hypotheses • Which trigger is most frequent? • Where can you insert external triggers when internal triggers fire?
41. Actions
42. Action Action = Motivation + Ability + Trigger
43. Define an Action • Map user flow • Which user resource is lacking • Find testable ways to make the action easier
44. Rewards
45. Variable Rewards Tribe Hunt Self
46. Rewards Are Not Enough +
47. Investment $$
48. Hooked Model Trigger Action Reward Investment
49. Now We Know…. Choices
50. Sources
51. Shameless Plug @davetrux https://davidtruxall.com http://bit.ly/app-psych spnsurvivors.org