It's not only your website’s information architecture that you need to worry about. You also need to think about your website’s psychological architecture. The big secret behind successful websites is rarely a design feature that you can emulate or a marketing campaign that you can copy. Their "secret sauce" is something conceptual that you cannot directly observe. However, if you understand the psychological architectures that lay behind their success, you'll be able to apply their winning principles to your own work, helping you to build better websites, mobile apps, social media campaigns, or other interactive technologies. In this session, we'll introduce you to the psychology of online design. We will show you a number of simple principles that you can use to understand website psychology. By the end of this session, you'll be better equipped to understand why some online ventures are successful, and others miss the mark. We will give away a number of research tools that you can use to reverse engineer the psychological architectures behind successful websites, whether you just want to understand how they work, or whether you need to learn from their success to strengthen your own projects. We'll begin this session by discussing the psychology of human-computer interaction and then highlight some of the popular thinking used to describe the psychology of interactive design. Next, we'll present a communication model that explains how people interact with websites and social media, which also offers a comprehensive system that you can use to explain the psychology of interactive design. We will discuss user psychology, user feedback, media channels, social networks, source factors, messaging, and how messages are expressed. As an introductory session, we'll just focus on a few principles of persuasive online design. Then we'll review how these principles are commonly used in social media profiles, campaign messages, mobile apps, landing pages, and other examples. We will walk you through the first few examples. Then afterwards, we'll invite you to participate in a group discussions where we explore the psychology behind several popular websites. Your facilitator, Brian Cugelman (@cugelman) has used the Internet for social change campaigns since 1998, working as a campaigner and evaluator for United Nations agencies, non-profit organizations, and private companies. Brian completed his doctorate in online social marketing with the Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group, a world leading team of Internet researchers. Brian's research publications focus on the psychology of online interventions that can influence individual and societal level change. At present, he works in Toronto as a freelance consultant with AlterSpark Consulting (@alterspark), where he provides strategic consulting and research services for online campaigns, projects, and social media engagement. Based on: http://www.jmir.org/2011/1/e17/

1. The psychology of websites and social media campaigns Brian Cugelman, PhD Online strategy and research consultant PodCamp 2011 (#pcto2011) Ryerson University Toronto, Canada 26 Feb 2011

2. Agenda 1. The psychological architectures of daily life 2. What is the psychology of the Internet? 3. Quick tour of influence systems 4. Two simple models to begin with 5. Let’s analyse website psychology 2

3. 1. The psychological architectures of daily life 3

5. A web user to click on a sales link?

6. A customer to give you a larger tip?

7. A family member to change their political views?4

9. Building trust through honest advice

10. Making a personal connection

11. Being liked

12. Doing favours

13. Target marketing

14. Sex appeal

15. Making tipping easy, and forcing higher tips 5

17. Comedians: laughs or boos

18. Authors: public reaction

19. Sales person: Sales or door in face

21. Social media campaigns: buzz metrics

22. Non-profit campaigns: donations, volunteers

23. Software developers: downloads, support calls6

25. Showing the tip bowl

26. Dressing professionally

27. Holding the door

28. Ringing the coins

29. Holding the door again

31. Memory, attention, focus

32. Source credibility

33. Reciprocation

34. Social proof

35. Liking What if they omitted reciprocation techniques? 8

36. Psychological architecture oftoilet tipping 9

37. 2. What is the psychology of the Internet? 10

38. Media equation Mediated experiences = real life experiences Human-computer psychology is like human-human psychology People reciprocate to computers (desert survival) 11

39. How technology can persuade 12 BJ Fogg with social facilitator added

41. Belittles others to make themselves look good?

42. Speaks in confusing terms and can't get to the point?

43. Prefers to talk all the time, and never allows you to speak?

44. Makes promises and does not deliver?13

46. Belittle their competition?

47. Uses complex writing with a confusing navigation?

48. Has content focused on them, and little that addresses your needs?

49. Makes unbelievable claims?14

51. They’re likeable with personality

52. They demonstrate expertise

53. They appear trustworthy

54. You understand them easily

55. What they say is engaging and relevant

56. They respect you and your time15

57. 3. Quick tour of influence systems 16

59. Stages of change (transtheoretical)

60. Evidence-based behavioural medicine

61. Community-based social marketing

62. Cialdini’s principles Models: Health belief model, Theory of planned behaviour, Social learning, Exchange theory, etc... 17

64. Too many conceptualizations, with numerous overlapping concepts

65. Big systems group many small techniques under broad concepts, causing over-fit and under-fit

68. Personal influence (Kats and Lazerfeld)

69. Social network analysis metrics (centrality, betweeness, etc..)

70. Strength of weak ties (Granovetter)

71. Six-degrees of separation

72. Viral spread

73. Social influences (social norms)

74. Environmental context and resources (Environmental constraints)

75. Moral appeals20

77. Attractiveness

78. Similarity

79. Liking 21

81. Writing style/clarity

82. Framing

83. Psychology of graphic design/layout (human perception)

84. Eyeball tracking and web heat maps guidelines

85. Tunnelling (and providing clear sequences)

86. Reduction

87. One time vs multiple interactions (relationships)

88. Foot-in-the-door technique

89. Door-in-the-face technique22

91. Text

92. Pictures

93. Video

94. Multi-media23

95. Intervention message Provide information on consequences of behaviour in general, Provide information on consequences of behaviour relevant to the individual, Provide information about others’ approval, Provide normative information about others’ behaviour, Goal setting (behaviour), Goal setting (outcome), Action planning, Barrier identification/Problem solving, Set graded tasks, Prompt review of behavioural goals, Prompt review of outcome goals, Provide rewards contingent on effort or progress towards behaviour, Provide rewards contingent on successful behaviour, Shaping, Prompting generalisation of a target behaviour, Prompt self-monitoring of behaviour, Prompt self-monitoring of behavioural outcome, Prompting focus on past success, Provide feedback on performance, Provide information on where and when to perform the behaviour, Provide instruction on how to perform the behaviour, Model/ Demonstrate the behaviour, Teach to use prompts/ cues, Environmental restructuring, Agree behavioural contract, Prompt practice, Use of follow up prompts, Facilitate social comparison, Plan social support/ social change, Prompt identification as role model/ position advocate, Prompt anticipated regret, Fear Arousal, Prompt Self talk, Prompt use of imagery, Relapse prevention/ Coping planning, Stress management, Emotional control training, Motivational interviewing, Time management, and General communication skills training. Plus exchange offer and trigger. 24 Abraham, C., & Michie, S. (2008). A taxonomy of behavior change techniques used in interventions. Health Psychology, 27(3), 379-387.

97. Emotion

98. Beliefs about consequences

99. Motivation and goals (Intention)

100. Behavioural regulation

101. Memory, attention and decision processes

102. Skills

103. Beliefs about capabilities (Self-efficacy)

104. Social/professional role and identity (Self-standards)

105. Nature of the behaviours25 Michie, S., Johnston, M., Abraham, C., Lawton, R., Parker, D., & Walker, A. (2005). Making psychological theory useful for implementing evidence based practice: a consensus approach. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 14(1), 26-33.

107. Personalization

108. Provide feedback on performance

109. Adaptation/content matching 26

110. The Psychological Architecture of 30 Health Behaviour Change Websites 27 CUGELMAN, B., THELWALL, M., & DAWES, P. (2011) Online interventions for social marketing health behavior change campaigns: A meta-analysis of psychological architectures and adherence factors. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 13(1), e17. http://www.jmir.org/2011/1/e17/

112. Guide development of behaviour change, persuasion, or sales technology

113. Aid discovering problems in your existing work

115. First, we need a simple analysis tool Communication-based Influence Components Model is a comprehensive tool for deep understanding. For time’s sake, we’ll use two theories instead: Foggbehavior model (and exchange theory) Cialdini’s six perinciples Powerful for niche applications, but limited in scope 30

116. Motivation by social exchange theory Behaviour is more likely when motivators outweigh demotivators 31 (-) Demotivaror: Costs, disincentives, barriers, effort (+) Motivator: Goals, carrots, benefit, drivers Value proposition

117. Fogg behaviour model 32

118. Cialdini Reciprocity - the human desire to repay another person in-kind Consistency and commitment- a person’s desire to be consistent with past behaviour, and how to leverage past commitments to influence future behaviour Social proof- peoples’ tendency to take behavioural cues from their social context Liking- the principle that people are more compliant with people they like Authority- how people are more likely to act on the advice of authority figures Scarcity- how people assign more value to things that are less available 33

119. These theories blended together 34 + + =

120. 5. Let’s analyse website psychology 35

121. 36 SOCIAL PROOF RECIPROCATION - + TRIGGER

122. 37 + VALUE PROPOSITION TRIGGER + SOCIAL PROOF SCARCITY SCARCITY SOCIAL PROOF RECIPROCATION LIKING

123. 38 + VALUE PROPOSITION +ABILITY SOCIAL PROOF - TRIGGER + VALUE PROPOSITION, ABILITY, TRIGGER

124. 39 LIKING, AUTHORITY,VALUE PROPOSITION SOCIAL PROOF RECIPROCATION, AUTHORITY + or – VALUE PROPOSITION(depending on the content)

125. 40 LIKING TRIGGER LIKING SOCIAL PROOF TRIGGER LIKING SOCIAL PROOF TRIGGER SOCIAL PROOF

126. These two models work well for landing and persuasion pages, but you’ll need different tools for social media. The Communication-based Influence Components Model provides a detailed list of concepts and factors that can explain website and social media psychology. 41

127. 42

128. 43

129. 44

130. 45

131. 46

132. 47

133. 48

134. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed our presentation. If you have any questions, get in touch. Brian Cugelman, PhD Online strategy and research consultant @cugelman www.AlterSpark.com brian@alterspark.com +1 (416) 921-2055 Toronto, Canada @AlterSpark alterspark alterspark alterspark 49