How incomplete states drive action online
Aim
- Share some research, best practice and data to help you make better product based decisions.
- Contribute positively to the emerging field of product psychology (more on this below).
What are incomplete states?
The best way to explain incomplete states is to show you. Here are some examples of how incomplete states have been used to help people reach their goals online.
Acorns
Ausmed
BTC Markets
Why are incomplete states important?
Incomplete states help people reach their goals online.
They do this by:
- Defining the steps that need to be completed;
- Highlighting the parts that are incomplete; and
- Providing a completeness meter so people can see their progress.
If you’re interested, UI Patterns explains why completeness meters work in helping people to achieve their goals online.
How does this work?
Creating incomplete states that people can’t help but try to fill work because of psychology — more specifically Self-Determination Theory (SDT).
Self-Determination Theory (SDT) explains the intrinsic and extrinsic drivers that motivate us to make day-to-day choices.
Intrinsic motivation — refers to initiating an activity for its own sake because it’s interesting and satisfying in itself as opposed to doing it for an external goal (money, recognition). Research suggests that intrinsic motivation is the most powerful kind.
Extrinsic motivation — refers to initiating an activity because of an external goal. This can include money, recognition, grades, competition, a trophy, a tick, regulation.
Ausmed — Extrinsic Motivation
Ausmed is an online platform that helps health professionals meet their Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements in Australia.
One way that Ausmed helps health professionals meet their CPD goals is to use incomplete states in a completeness meter to make it clear what needs to be completed.
For example, the tasks you see above need to be completed by health professionals by law however they are rarely completed. By using a completeness meter, people were more likely to complete the tasks.
The “Add Work Experience” incomplete state was another place where this worked. When Ausmed introduced this this incomplete state, 500+ people added their work experience in 24 hours.
What role does feedback play in motivation?
Research has found that positive feedback can enhance motivation and negative feedback can diminish it.
It’s likely that positive feedback does this because it makes people feel competent. People like to hear they are competent when they are working towards achieving their goals.
Uber used research in motivation and positive feedback to motivate their drivers to complete more rides and gain their signing bonus.
Uber — Intrinsic Motivation
Uber was becoming concerned that new drivers were leaving the platform before completing the 25 rides that would earn them a signing bonus.
To help drivers get to the 25 rides Uber added encouraging remarks like, “You’re almost halfway there, Congratulations!” to encourage drivers to complete at least 25 rides.
Why 25 rides ? This is because the data scientists at Uber realised that once drivers reached 25 rides they were more likely to keep driving with Uber.
Uber applied what psychologists and video game designers have long known — encouraging people towards a concrete goal can motivate them to complete a task.
What Uber did here was get drivers to internalise the organisation’s goals through encouraging remarks. This is smart as internalised motivation is the most powerful kind of motivation.
How can we apply this ?
When people need to complete a goal online (e.g. setting up a bank account, completing their CPD) we can play a critical role in helping them achieve this goal.
We play a vital role in the following;
- Mapping out the user journey and highlighting the key steps that need to be taken;
- Making it very clear how users can complete the incomplete — one way proposed by this article is to add a progress bar with incomplete states;
- Reducing any friction that prevents users from achieving their goals; and
- Understanding the data that drives user behaviour online to make data driven decisions about products.
- Ensuring that the goals we help people meet online are designed ethically — The Little Book of Design Research Ethics by IDEO
It’s important to mention that applying these principles to product development only work if people using the product understand how it benefits them directly. If people can’t see this then they are unlikely to be motivated to use it.
My Hypothesis
I hypothesise that the same thing that motivates people to complete the incomplete, motives them to tap each app on their phone to remove the red notification badge. Another article that touches on this — Notifications are broken. Here’s how Apple and Google can fix them.
My next post will address this in further detail however for now I would like your feedback. Please leave your comments below or contact me directly on Linkedin.
Step 1 — Look at the picture below
Take a moment to look at the screen below. For the purposes of this activity I want you to imagine this is your mobile phone and there are all these red notification badges on your screen.
Step 2 — Leave your response in the comments below
Thinking of the last week when you have used your phone — what did you do when you these red notification icons?
Add your response in the comments below — it’ll take you 30 seconds. I will use your responses in my next article on motivation and incomplete states.
Takeaways
- We can be motivated by extrinsic and intrinsic motivational goals online
- Incomplete state in a progress bar can be used to motivate people to take action online
- Positive feedback can enhance motivation and negative feedback can diminishes it
- Delivering positive feedback at the right time can further increase the chance an action is completed
If you like what you read, you may like to contact me directly on LinkedIn or join Melbourne’s User Experience and Psychology Community — improving online experiences through best practice, academic research, big data & ethics. We MeetUp once a month in Melbourne!
If you found this article interesting, it would mean a lot to me if you could let me know by giving this article a clap.
Resources
- Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary educational psychology, 25(1), 54–67. Free access to the article here
- Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American psychologist, 55(1), 68.
- Deci, E. L. (1971). Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of personality and Social Psychology, 18(1), 105. Free access here
- How Uber Uses Psychological Tricks to Push Its Drivers’ Buttons (2017)
