With high quality User InvolvementUser Involvement
Imagine purchasing a gym membership in order to lose weight or grow more muscular. Having a gym membership is not enough on its own! In order to successfully accomplish that goal, you would need to work out regularly on the right muscle groups. You might have a higher likelihood of success if you participate in exercise classes or hire a personal trainer. Your outcomes are shaped by your own behavior in the gym.
User involvement is defined by the set of user behaviors that lead to experienci..., people are using your product when their lives call for it and in a way that allows the product to fulfill its promise to the user. This is distinct from how high user engagement is generally conceptualized in product world, which is when people use your service as much as possible.
Designing for engagement is unsustainable. It’s an outcome that is often at odds with what the user actually wants from the app, as is the case with much of social media. People are irrational, but they’re not stupid. They’ll resent the app, and eventually stop using it.
On top of that, engagement is an outcome! If I were to try to just design for engagement, it would be very challenging because the inputs are unclear. User involvement is defined by what the user is doing, which ultimately determines the user and company outcomes. Ask yourself - what outcomes are actually desirable for the user and the company, and what involvement is required from both the user and the company to make those outcomes happen? This is what it means to Satisfy the social contract between the user and the appSatisfy the social contract between the user and the app
This is about optimizing for User Involvement within the context of what the app can do. The user needs to exert effort into making the app work for their needs, and the app needs to reduce the effort required and make the effort worthwhile. The social contract between the user and the app tends to work best when the app is transparent about what user involvement is necessary so the user can make an informed choice that they internalize as self-motivated.
This is worthwhile to the app becaus....
I don’t particularly care about how many daily active users we have if the product doesn’t need to be used daily to accomplish User GoalUser Goal
There are individual differences between new users in their initial user goals, which plays a crucial role in the Parameters of onboarding. Since Adoption requires a baseline of user involvement in order to overcome inertia, the user must see how the app relates to their ability to accomplish goals quickly.
Additionally, User goals change over time, so if we want Retention, we need continued User Involvement.
Goals that matter to the user are ones they were struggling to accomplish on their...s. I’m not trying to violate the contract.