Products are fundamentally voluntaryProducts are fundamentally voluntary
People can always choose to use the product, use an alternative, or use nothing at all. In fact, not using your product is their default state of being, and you’re trying to get them to do something different and effortful in using your product. Adoption requires a baseline of user involvement in order to overcome inertia.
It’s easier to facilitate people doing something that they want to do than it is to convince them to do something they don’t want to do. It’s easier to enhance their desir..., and Expectancy Value Theory gives us a way to understand which goals people will pursue and what makes them more likely to be successful. This theory is one of the most straightforward ways to Make an experience the user wants.
Translated into app terms:
-
The user believes that they are capable of performing actions within the appThe user believes that they are capable of performing actions within the app
People are generally more likely to do some behavior if they think they are capable of doing it. I'm not going to sign up for a marathon because I can barely run a mile. I believe I'm capable of giving advice about how to incorporate behavioral science into product design, so I do. See more detail on the page for Self-efficacy
- The user believes that their actions in the app lead to goal achievementThe user believes that their actions in the app lead to goal achievement
If people are going to do something effortful, they want to know that their effort is going towards their goal.
In the app, this can be communicated through Progress monitoring and feedback systems that show how the app is instrumental to goal achievement. It can also be communicated through other UX that shows the user concrete pathways to goal achievement. This is what allows you to Speak to the user with a shared vocabulary
Many “aha moments” can be encapsulated through this principle.
- The user believes that the app will help them achieve a goal that they actually haveThe user believes that the app will help them achieve a goal that they actually have
This is just good product design and user research. Learn about the user’s goals and how committed they are to achieving them and the product with that in mind.
The intuition for why this leads to voluntary behavior is clear - if people don’t stand to benefit from a task in a way that they care about, then why bother?
Citation Eccles, J. (1983). Expectancies, values, and academic behaviors. In J. T. Spence (Ed.), Achievement and achievement motives: Psychological and sociological approaches (pp. 75-146). San Francisco, CA: W. H. Freeman.
See the Wikipedia page for a quick overview.