in dollars. If you scroll down on the product home page just below the main messages, they clearly tell you all about the Sweatcoin currency. But like many users, I didn’t initially scroll down below the big call-to-action at the top of the screen. And the Sweatcoin symbol could be mistaken for a stylized dollar sign if you were just glancing and not looking closely, as I did. An important piece of information that should have been made very obvious to me was communicated subtly, and I missed it. And I work on this type of program for a living!
Be up front with your users (or potential future users) about what your product is and what using it will be like. You may find fewer people who are on board, but those who do get on board are more likely to stick with you over time.
Play by the Rules
Once users are enrolled in your program, it’s important to provide an experience that aligns with what they expect. If you’ve promised them smooth sailing and then immediately hit them with challenges, they’ll feel betrayed. Not only will they be skeptical about working on the challenges, but they’ll also have negative feelings toward your product that wouldn’t be there if they’d just known the requirements going in.
Often, designers fudge the truth to make their product seem more palatable to users. They might have rationales like the following:
• If people do a trial on the program, they’ll like it so much that they’ll be willing to upgrade to a paid version. It’s okay not to tell them it’s not free until they’re already hooked.
• I know this is the best thing for users. I also know that if I tell them what they need to do, they won’t do it. If I can get them started on the right path, I’ll convince them.
• This is a really short survey. I’ll say it’s five questions, even though it’s really ten; five sounds better, and no one will mind because it’s still super short. (See Figure 3.9 for a program that did exactly this.)
The product designers who decide to present their users with more palatable experiences than they actually deliver aren’t evil. They’re just trying to get people to use their product and hoping it works out. It’s not effective. Don’t do it.
Give People an Out
If you heat water in a pressurized container with no steam valve, it will eventually explode. Likewise, if you repeatedly push your users into actions they don’t want to take without an opportunity to decline, they’ll eventually exit your product (and maybe badmouth it to all their friends). Unlike Don Corleone, behavior change designers shouldn’t make offers that people can’t refuse. When users can’t opt out, their autonomy is not being supported. And without a way to opt out of a specific choice they don’t want to make, people will take the ultimate opt out: they’ll stop using your product altogether.
FIGURE 3.9 Stash says they’ll ask five questions to suggest an investment portfolio for you. It’s actually ten.
For the most part, behavior change designers need to have ongoing relationships with their users in order to accomplish the goals of their products. Upsetting users by cornering them on an action is counterproductive if the users don’t stick with the program after that. If an action is not truly necessary for the behavior change program to work, let people postpone it, choose from a handful of options, or opt out entirely as they wish.
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