Intrinsic Motivation talks

Intrinsic motivation is the drive to do something because it is interesting, enjoyable or meaningful in itself, rather than for an external reward such as points, money or praise. Self-determination theory links it to three basic needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness.

For product designers, the distinction matters. Extrinsic rewards can get people to try something, but they often stop working once the rewards stop, and they can even crowd out genuine interest. Products that people keep using tend to support intrinsic motivation by giving them meaningful choices, a sense of progress and mastery, and connection with others. This is central to gamification, onboarding and persuasive design done well.

The two talks here are “The Player’s Journey” by Amy Jo Kim at Gamification 2013 and “Beyond usability: Designing with persuasive patterns” by Anders Toxboe at GOTO in 2018. They are tagged with gamification, behavioral economics, design patterns, designing behaviors, onboarding and social games. This is a sub-topic of motivational design.