Mobility and Connectivity
The author reflects on the topic of kairos from an earlier chapter, and considers the "new" mobile and networked computing capabilities as having the power to more effectively reach a subject who is in the right physical location and frame of mind to be vulnerable to persuasion.
He provides two hypothetical examples: a portable device that is used by a student to record, track, and remind them about their need to study and serves as a study aid (via flash-card functionality); and a sports watch that senses hydration levels and alerts the wearer to consume fluids based on their present condition and a training schedule created by a coach.
These examples illustrate the way in which mobile and networked technology have the ability to reach people at various locations, in instances where it would not be feasible to have a traditional computer, and that these applications would be far less effective if they were not accessible via a portable device.
He concedes that mobile and networked are two different concepts that do not necessarily go together (a device may be mobile but not networked, or vice versa, depending on the specific purpose for which it is designed to be achieved), hence the grouping of these topics is arbitrary.
Mobile Technology
In recent years, the concept of mobile commerce has been heavily hyped within the IT and retail industries: there is great allure for merchants to be able to advertise products to consumers via this new channel, and potential for profit among vendors whose products enable merchants to exploit this potential. However, it has failed to materialize because both parties have been focused on their own interests, while consumers are not only disinterested, but opposed to allowing commercial interests to invade yet another facet of their lives.
And so, the author departs from commercial interest to focus on the use of mobile computing that is likely to be of interest to, hence adopted by, users. There are many potential benefits to mobile technology, which gives the user the ability to receive information in pertinent times and locations. There remains great potential for persuasion in this channel, but only for products whose primary purpose is focused on the needs of the user.
The author refers to research done in the healthcare industry, in which researchers examined 72 different health-related mobile applications for PDAs, mobile phones, and pagers. These applications had three basic functions: to monitor or enable the user to log information, the ability to analyze and report the information collected, and the ability to access pertinent reference material. In each instance the applications were largely "mundane," providing reference without an apparent attempt to affect behavior or attitudes, which was surprising, given that the data could be used to effectively persuade users in a positive direction rather than merely reporting information.
(EN: I find it less that surprising. Especially in healthcare, the use of "suggestion" is an uncomfortable issue. From a commercial perspective, a device that provides advice decreases the need for a visit to a clinic, and the ability of the doctor to bill for time, which is still the basis of most medical billing. And from a legal perspective, there is significant exposure in doing so. Even good and well-grounded advice does not guarantee that the patient's condition will improve, yet patients seem to have the expectation of certainty, and are quick to respond with lawsuits when healthcare professionals do not deliver perfect results. Until these tendencies change, it is unlikely that the industry will adopt persuasive technology, even if patients clamor for it.)
Tools of Persuasion
By virtue of portability, mobile devices have two factors in addition to those of computing devices that are in fixed locations: kairos and convenience.
Kairos is the rhetorical theory of the "opportune moment," which is widely used in commercial advertising, but which is difficult to effectively apply due to the limited choices given to the sender. Given that the device is portable and carried with the user, mobile computing largely removes these restrictions, giving the sender access to a much greater number of places and times in which the received is likely to be vulnerable to persuasion.
Convenience works in reverse: it is focused on the availability of information and capabilities at the places and times where the user is likely to wish to have access to them. A low-tech example of convenience are the umbrella salesman who appear outside a train station on a rainy day (who sell a lot of product to people who might otherwise have resigned themselves to getting wet rather than walking back into the station to a shop that charges half as much). The driving principle of convenience is that people seek to avoid effort, and are more likely to take action if they believe less effort to be involved.
Convenience is one of the primary selling points for mobile technology: in describing the value of a mobile device, one of the top benefits that users cite is that a mobile device fills downtime, the "mental white space" that occurs in the (many) occasions in which a person is stuck in a situation while waiting for something to occur (standing in line, sitting in a waiting room, riding a bus, etc.) and have the desire to fill that time with other things, whether it's merely to occupy their mind by playing a game or to make productive use of the time by performing a mundane task such as managing their bank account.
Limitations of Mobile Devices
Mobile devices are also limited by their size: in order to be portable, they must be small, which also means that there is a limited amount of information that can be displayed and that the input devices (keypads) are difficult to use. Hence, the success of a mobile application is in its simplicity of operation, requiring the user to enter and receive very small quantities of information.
Mobile devices are also limited by the nature of their use: the user in a "waiting" situation cannot predict the amount of time they will be able to engage, and must maintain some level of environmental awareness. As a result, the "games" for mobile devices are far less complex that typical games - it is expected they would be dismal failures if sold for a gaming console - and "productivity" applications are likewise limited to simple tasks that require minimal engagement.
Adoption ve. Addiction
The author mentions research conducted to determine the degree of attachment people have to their mobile devices and found an extremely strong level of mobile loyalty: the terms in which people describe their mobile devices cast them as an appendage (an extension of themselves) rater than as an external tool or even a companion.
This is of particular interest to mobile designers, and may help to explain the strong level of resistance to mobile advertising: this degree of attachment creates a sense of possession and territoriality, and any attempt on the part of an outside party to take control of the device, even to determine what information it displays, is met with a strong hostile and defensive reaction.
(EN: On the topic of addiction, I've also noticed that mobile devices are often used to avoid social interaction in "white space" situations. When individuals are trapped in a waiting room or elevator, they use mobile devices to give the appearance of being engaged and unavailable for "small talk." While users may not be aware of this behavior, or may be reluctant to admit it, is extremely common, and has ominous correlation with psychological dysfunctions such as social anxiety disorder and avoidant personality disorder.)
Persuasion and Motivation
Given that mobile users are hostile to intrusion upon their devices, the ability to persuade or motivate is largely limited to the context of assisting the user to achieve their goals. Examples are provided of mobile applications that have been successful, and in each instance, the success of the device is in its application as a tool to achieve a desire that the user already has.
This is not to say that persuasion and motivation are not possible: software that presents information that is related to the task the user is performing is perceived as helpful, and users are highly likely to adopt suggestions when they feel that it is helping them to change their behavior of their own choosing. As such, persuasion can be highly effective in this medium if it is carefully chosen and crafted to have the plausible appearance of serving the needs and interests of the user.
Experience Design
Since users feel a close relationship with their mobile devices, experience design is of paramount importance. To be successful, a mobile application must support an positive relationship between user and product that involves many interactions over a long period of time. Otherwise, the relationship is likely to be terminated by the user.
Connected Technology
"Connected" technology is capable of exchanging data with other devices and people through the Internet or another communication infrastructure. The term "networked computing" is often used interchangeably, but connected technology also includes the concept of devices that can communicate on a one-to-one basis (a digital audio player that can connect with a home computer to transfer files, or a PDA that enables two individuals to use an infrared connector to exchange contact information directly).
The value of connection to external sources of information is in overcoming the amount of data that can feasibly be stored on a device, having the ability for data to be updated on a regular basis, and having the ability to communicate and share data with other people.
(EN: A better analogy might be to consider the value of a computer without an internet connection to one that has an internet connection. Adoption rate of computing technology was much lower before networking, and many individuals find their computer to be "useless" when the network connection is out of service.)
Current, Contingent, and Coordinated Information
As opposed to devices that store information locally, a connected device is able to access (either constantly or periodically) sources of data that provide information that is current (up to date), contingent (relative to a specific need) and coordinated (correlated from multiple sources).
Each of these factors improves the quality of data from a utilitarian perspective, but also increases the persuasive power of the device: current and coordinated information grant greater credibility and contingent information has greater relevancy to the user.
The author also discusses correlation in the sense of interaction with other users, which may be direct interaction (such as participating in a conversation with others) or indirect (such as participating in an online auction, where the leading bid reflects the actions of other users).
When currency and contingency are combined, the device gains power in its ability to present information that is relevant and up to date, such as the current traffic conditions relative to the user's present location or a reliable indication that a desired item is nearby and in inventory.
Leveraging Social Influence
There is a tendency among human beings, as social creatures, to form into groups to perform tasks that are possible to perform alone: study groups, aerobics classes, political parties, and support groups for medical disorders. The value of pursuing goals in a social setting is to benefit from the expertise and experience of others in similar situations and to gain support and positive peer pressure to persevere in pursuit of one's own goals.
Connected computing leverages these benefits, and given the proliferation of "communicates of interest" and "social networking sites," users have a high level of interest in interacting with others through computing technology, and technology enables groups to form in a virtual setting in instances where elements of the physical world, such as distance and time, would make it impossible to do so.
Social Facilitation
Social facilitation is a principle that suggests that individuals perform better in groups, which has been observed in sports clubs (differentiated from "teams" in that the activities and success of club participants are individual rather than interdependent: bicycling, running, swimming, etc.).
Various psychological theories support this principle: the dynamics of peer relationships (one must succeed in order to be accepted and have status as a member of the group), observational learning (a participant learns from the behavior of others), surveillance response (a person strives to do the right thing because they are aware others are watching), etc.
Social Comparison
The principle of social comparison maintains that individuals consider their behaviors and attitudes by comparing them to those of others, driven by the logical desire to determine a reasonable benchmark as well as the psychological desire to "belong" by conforming to the norms of a group or society.
An example of a low-tech use of comparison to motivate behavior is a quiz or survey that invites a subject to complete a questionnaire and compare their "score" against a model. This has been found to be highly effective in adjusting attitudes or behaviors and has been used in other media (the magazine quiz or political poll that, while seemingly a neutral assessment, is rigged to motivate the user to change their attitudes or behaviors to achieve a better score).
The effectiveness of this motivation depends on the subject's acceptance of the quiz administrator to be fair and impartial in their assessment, though in most cases, subjects will assume this unless there is a blatant conflict of interest. Where quizzes compare the subject to the scores of other test participants, subjects place greater credence in the outcome of the evaluation.
There are also "positive" applications of social comparison. An example given is of cancer patients who are undergoing a course of therapy that includes painful treatments. By comparing themselves with other patients undergoing the same treatment, subjects contextualize their experience, recognize that the discomfort they sense is normal, and decrease their dosages of pain medication (which, used too frequently, can precipitate an addiction).
Conformity and Resistance
There is much research and theory in group dynamics: each individual assesses whether the sacrifice of autonomy required to conform to the norms of the group merits the risk of negative consequences of being rejected by or removing themselves from the group, and decides accordingly whether to conform or resist. And by and large, individuals consistently decide to conform.
This tendency has long been exploited by commercial and political factions to gain power over individuals: by failing to wear the latest fashion or support a popular issue, the individual is "different" from the rest of the group, which makes them abnormal, which justifies the behavior of others in applying peer pressure to encourage them to conform or to punish them for their refusal to comply.
On the other hand, dissent can be contagious. Within any group, there are some participants who resent the imperative to conform and the behavior of a deviant or defector makes the reluctant conformist aware that they are not alone, which helps them to muster the courage to practice resistance. If dissent becomes widespread, it can lead to the splintering or dissolution of the group.
Whether conformity or resistance is beneficial largely depends on the norms of the group, which may be beneficial or harmful. For example, consider the norms of two groups in respect to the use of drugs: the norms of a given clique may require members to use harmful drugs, and norms of a given church may require member to refuse the use of beneficial drugs. In such instances, it stands to reason that conformity is detrimental, and individuals should be encouraged to deviate from the norms of these groups.
There is also a note on mindless conformity, in which individuals in a group all seem to be striving to achieve a "norm" that is not a product of the independent thought of any individual. As an example, surveys done on college campuses almost universally reflect that students believe that their peers are consuming far more alcohol than they actually do, and that they feel pressure to increase their own level of consumption to be in line with a "standard" that has nothing to do with reality.
But back to the point ... connected technologies merely leverage the dynamics of conformity, by enabling individuals to join virtual groups that develop norms, and to witness the behavior of others who decide to reject those norms.
Social Learning
The author describes social learning theory as "one of the most popular and effective ways for changing attitudes and behaviors." This theory maintains that individuals learn, and are most convinced, by observing the actions of others and their perceived consequences, and readily adopt behaviors and attitudes that are thereby evidenced to be effective in achieving the outcomes they desire.
The concept of observation is to be stressed. While a subject grants credibility to another individual who has expertise, due to experience, first-hand observations of another person, regardless of expertise, are more compelling.
Another point of emphasis is that the subject is influenced by perceived outcomes, in both the sense that the subject assumes them to be true and accepts a cause-and-effect relationship between action and consequence. This is the principle behind product endorsements: a star basketball player endorses a brand of shoes and the subject assumes, correctly or otherwise, that the shoes had a causal effect on the performance of the endorser.
The value of connected technology is in giving the user greater access to witness the actions of others and their consequences, which they may not have been able to witness in their daily lives, the ability of individuals to share their own experiences as a model for others, and the ability of persuaders to present evidence that supports their desired effect on the audience.
Intrinsic Motivation
The author discusses a myriad of topics under the label of "intrinsic motivation," which proposes that some activities have built-in rewards to the individual (by undertaking an activity, the individual gains a benefit).
There are also three group-level intrinsic motivators: competition, cooperation, and recognition.
Competition is one of the most powerful group-level intrinsic motivators. In some instances, merely "winning" the competition (outperforming others) is motivation enough, and there is no need for any extrinsic motivator (a prize for winning) to drive competitors.
(EN I would also suggest that competition is not necessarily an attempt to outperform others, but it may be a desire to achieve a standard or goal that has been achieved by others. As an example, I have observed camaraderie among individuals who have both climbed the same mountain that has nothing to do with who climbed it faster - each took pleasure in the accomplishment of the goal, such that the intrinsic satisfaction is achieved by competitive success that does not depend on the performance of others, but against oneself or, arguably, the mountain they both have "beaten".)
Cooperation is another motivator that appeals to the innate desire of human beings to provide help and support for one another. The emotional reward of providing help to another person achieve their goal, or of working together to achieve a common goal, is compelling.
Recognition is also an intrinsic motivation, though the author's examples seem to cast it in the light of competition (an "employee of the month" is recognized for performance) or cooperation (people who wear "I've donated" stickers after a blood drive are helping others or working toward a common goal). (EN: I would agree that recognition by others is a motivational factor, but given the lack of a good example, I would posit that it is an extrinsic factor)
Again, connected technologies overcome the barriers of distance and time, enabling people to interact competitively or cooperatively with those they may not encounter in the "real" world.
Future Mobile and Connected Technology
The author remarks that mobile and connected technologies are in their infancy, and there is a limited amount of development that has been done to date to use them as a persuasive manner, but given the popularity and success thus far, he feels it's likely to see the future development of a much wider range of devices and applications.