Influencing Behavior Through Design
A few weekends ago, my fiancee` and I went to Kennywood. Growing up very close to the amusement park, I have been there at least once almost every year of my life.
One of my favorite rides has always been the Phantom’s Revenge (a rollercoaster formerly known as The Steel Phantom). In the line for said ride is typically a longer wait being that it is one of the parks most popular rides. In that line, there are spots in which you are standing over roofs of other buildings below. Historically, those roofs were the ‘cool spot’ to throw chewing gum (primarily) and other non important items. Even at a young age, I never understood the appeal to do so. I can imagine it became a larger problem for the park staff to clean chewing gum off the roof(s) that has sufficiently baked into a ceiling all day in the hot sun. I noticed an unassuming change in the line this year during my visit.
You’ll notice, this is very much a ‘game’ for people standing in line for the ride, with a score and all (the closer you get the higher score, naturally) with the bullseye being the best. At first glance, this isn’t such a big deal and can be dismissed as a silly attempt to keep those waiting in line somewhat entertained (and forgetting about the longer line).
As you move farther in the line, you come the points where you are over a pathway, with aforementioned roofs. It was at that point it clicked for me. Not only has this ‘game’ served the purpose of some kind of entertainment, but it also influenced behavior of the people waiting in line to remove their gum and not be tempted to pitch it onto the roof.
This roof was historically covered in an incredible amount of gum and other debris now stands far less littered than it once was.
A small point of interaction, that cost probably $100 or less in materials and even less in human capital has saved ten-fold in cleaning costs for the park in this particular area.
As a UX designer in the digital space, this kind of inspiration is useful for influencing behavior to achieve business goals of your site. I can think of a few ways:
- incentives (you earn ‘points’ for an action)
- community (you want others to know your achievements)
- desirability (generating fresh interest in users to return to see other ‘scores’ and keep up on a community)
The smallest interaction points can help in huge ways. What sort of things have all of you done to bring gaming into your site to accomplish business goals?
