Motivational Design talks

Motivational design is the practice of shaping a product so that people want to start, continue and return to an activity. It draws on cognitive psychology, behavioral economics and game design to understand what drives behaviour, and it uses that understanding to design goals, feedback, challenge and reward.

In UI, UX and product design, motivation is often what separates a usable product from one people actually use. Clear goals, a sense of progress and the right level of challenge can keep people engaged, while respect for their autonomy keeps engagement healthy. The same techniques can be misused to trick people, which is why ethics and dark patterns belong in the conversation.

The six talks here run from 2008 to 2015. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi explains “Flow, the secret to happiness” at TED Talks, and Simon Sinek gives “How great leaders inspire action”. At Gamification 2013, Amy Jo Kim presents “The Player’s Journey” and Stephen Anderson talks “From Paths to Sandboxes”. Anders Toxboe covers “Beyond usability: Designing with persuasive patterns” at GOTO, and Harry Brignull shows “Dark Patterns: User Interfaces Designed to Trick People”. Intrinsic motivation is a sub-topic. The UI-Patterns.com library collects many of the persuasive patterns used in motivational design.