733 new employees of a health company used a single opt-in process to subscribe to a retirement plan. Results were compared to a multi-step phone process used with 455 and 407  employees from the two previous years.

Participation rates were 5% after one month and 8% after three months. With the new process, they rose to 19% and 35% respectively.

Perform a friction audit.

Identify all the hurdles and delays your user may feel while using your product and attempt to minimise them. How many barriers to a near-effortless user experience can you find?

Adding friction can help people from making mistakes.

Add barriers to counter System 1 mode, prompting users for conscious reflection to validate important information (e.g. monetary transactions). What strategic friction can you create?

Add friction to make waiting times feel shorter.

Houston airport reduced the number of luggage waiting times complaints by moving the luggage area further away so that passengers spent more time walking and less time waiting.

Remove friction but highlight effort.

Our willingness to pay for something increases by knowing how much work is done for us. We pay more for a cup of coffee if we see the barista working on it for several minutes.

142 people were split into 3 groups and were shown either 72 nouns, abstract words or pictures on a projector for a split-second each, with 5-second pauses in between. They were then asked to recall as many items as possible.

Results showed that those in the picture group recalled far more than either word groups.

Boost your message.

‍Visual ads are remembered better in the long term than verbal ads, especially when we are under greater cognitive load (Childers and Houston, 1984).

What emotional message can you convey more powerfully with a striking, visual metaphor over mere words?

Boost learning by adding in visual references, and not relying solely on text-based language.

This can help broaden understanding across cultures and age ranges.

Where are you trying to change behavior?

What image do you want to stick in peoples’ heads to simplify understanding?

Make product choices distinct.

Images are internalized twice, both visually and verbally (see Dual Code Theory), so they stick in the brain better than just words.

This holds as long as the images aren't abstract or similar to one another (Reder et al, 2006).

So if you sell a large product range that looks similar, consider modifying their design or how they're presented to heighten relative differences and create a more distinct range of choices.

There’s a reason this Nugget is #1 in our library.

The concept of Scarcity lies at the core of economics, and greatly influences perceptions of value, status and our competitive desire to attain certain items over others.

Unfortunately, it's also one of the more poorly-applied concepts out there, along with Defaults and Loss Aversion.

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Mastering quantity scarcity‍

An airline stating that there's 
“Only 3 seats left” may well be using accurate data and not simply using faux-scarcity to artificially suggest that there's less supply of seats than there actually is.

However, from the user's perspective, the buildup of mistrust around the use of scarcity means cynicism is higher, so one must be careful with information presented.

Similarly, hotel websites telling you that “30 other people are looking at this item” engineer stress to compel people into action without changing supply yet highlighting demand in a manipulative way.

Instead, use quantity scarcity to focus on the craft and high quality of what you're selling.

Make your scarcity feel valuable, not stressful.

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Mastering time scarcity

Ensure that any time restriction is highlighted primarily for the purpose of maintaining the quality of your product or service, and not merely to cause stress that could be avoided.

As an example, use time scarcity to launch unique or experimental products that are only available within a particular window (say a week, month or season).

This use of time scarcity is positive and encourages brand exploration, used creatively to highlight your unique value.

There’s a reason this Nugget is #1 in our library.

The concept of Scarcity lies at the core of economics, and greatly influences perceptions of value, status and our competitive desire to attain certain items over others.

Unfortunately, it's also one of the more poorly-applied concepts out there, along with Defaults and Loss Aversion.

‍

Mastering quantity scarcity‍

An airline stating that there's 
“Only 3 seats left” may well be using accurate data and not simply using faux-scarcity to artificially suggest that there's less supply of seats than there actually is.

However, from the user's perspective, the buildup of mistrust around the use of scarcity means cynicism is higher, so one must be careful with information presented.

Similarly, hotel websites telling you that “30 other people are looking at this item” engineer stress to compel people into action without changing supply yet highlighting demand in a manipulative way.

Instead, use quantity scarcity to focus on the craft and high quality of what you're selling.

Make your scarcity feel valuable, not stressful.

‍

Mastering time scarcity

Ensure that any time restriction is highlighted primarily for the purpose of maintaining the quality of your product or service, and not merely to cause stress that could be avoided.

As an example, use time scarcity to launch unique or experimental products that are only available within a particular window (say a week, month or season).

This use of time scarcity is positive and encourages brand exploration, used creatively to highlight your unique value.

146 people were asked to rate identical cookies that were either presented in a jar as scarce or in abundance. They were then asked how likely they would be to want to eat a further cookie.

When scarce, the cookies were rated as more desirable and having a higher value. They were also seen as more valuable when going from an abundant state to scarce than when always scarce.

Scarcity comes in 4 flavors:
Quantity, Time, Access & Rarity.

Control quantity.
‍To increase perceived value of your product, release it in smaller and diminishing quantities, emphasizing its finite nature.

Restrict time.
When the clock is ticking and we’re overwhelmed, we take mental shortcuts that speed up decision-making.

Motivate customers by emphasizing the limited time remaining in which to act.

Limit access.
Restricting access to your products or services will increase desire and perceived value. Do this selectively for certain features and / or customer segments.

For instance, you might want to design valuable, unique rewards that are only unlocked for very special efforts on the part of the customer.

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Information has a wonderful way of looking very different, depending on how it’s communicated.

From turning glasses half empty into those half-full, as Designers, we have a great role to play in using framing to help people see things differently and hopefully, for the better too.

Framing is one of your most powerful behavioral tools. Everything can be reframed, depending on what you want.

For example, online second-hand clothing marketplace Vinted has devised a clever strategy to reframe the commonly-used “Service Fee” as a “Buyer protection fee”.

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By reframing it as buyer protection and clearly communicating how this amount is calculated, this assurance goes beyond merely paying for the item.

Now, customers will also feel confident that they’re taking extra steps towards safeguarding their purchase.

Information has a wonderful way of looking very different, depending on how it’s communicated.

From turning glasses half empty into those half-full, as Designers, we have a great role to play in using framing to help people see things differently and hopefully, for the better too.

Framing is one of your most powerful behavioral tools. Everything can be reframed, depending on what you want.

For example, online second-hand clothing marketplace Vinted has devised a clever strategy to reframe the commonly-used “Service Fee” as a “Buyer protection fee”.

‍
By reframing it as buyer protection and clearly communicating how this amount is calculated, this assurance goes beyond merely paying for the item.

Now, customers will also feel confident that they’re taking extra steps towards safeguarding their purchase.

96 people were told they’d be given some ground beef to taste, with half told it’d be  “25% fat” (negative frame) and half told it’d be “75% lean” (positive frame). They were then asked to rate the quality of the beef out of 7.

‍Those presented with a positive frame rated the beef as higher quality than those presented with a negative one.

Create a frame using context, words or imagery to help others  to see things according to your needs. 

Wildly different perceptions are made possible by reframing the same evidence.

Reframe statistics as factually-accurate positives against competitors. 

Facts are dramatically reinterpreted when set amongst different data. 

• Create an opportunity to act.

We’re more likely to take up a special offer when the marketing message is framed as a potential loss than a gain (Gamliel and Herstein, 2012). 

City Planners of Garden Grove, California installed Active Radar Speed Signs at 5 locations to provide real-time feedback on the speed of 58,000 drivers. LEDs would also flash if drivers exceeded speed limits by more than 5MPH.

After installation of the feedback systems, average speed dropped 22% from 44 to 34mph.

First, determine the behavior to change. Measure, capture and store the relevant data. 

Communicate it back to the individual in a relevant, context-sensitive way that ultimately provokes an emotional reaction.

Provide clear consequences for action or inaction. It’s critical to get the right balance between not being too subtle and not being too intrusive or authoritarian (which we filter out).

Lastly, allow for opportunities to immediately rectify the behavior - which should also be tracked - completing the loop and eventually changing the behavior pattern.  Remember to reward compliance as much as you penalize inaction to increase effectiveness.

205 people were shown a description of a digital camera printed in a font that was either easy to read (high fluency) or hard (low fluency).

Results found that when easy to read, only 56% delayed choosing the camera, next to 71% when hard. Why? Fluency breeds familiarity, which we value greatly, because it’s unlikely to be harmful (Zajonc, 1968).

Keep it short. Whether for marketing, nudges or political persuading, low syllable, easy-to-conceptualize slogans will feel dramatically more intuitive for consumers. Next to a competing message, they’ll believe the one that’s easier to understand (Schooler & Hertwig, 2005).

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. The mere act of repeating your message will increase its familiarity, which itself increases the extent to which it’s seen as true (Reber & Schwarz, 1999). Keep it consistent across your team and put it everywhere.

Keep product benefits concise. Consumers actually like a product less the more positive traits they bring to mind (Menon & Raghubir, 2003).  This is because they start to associate your product with greater complexity and lower fluency. 

Faced with a set of options, when we’re not sure what’s the “right” choice, Defaults offer a helpful guide.

They help people avoid expending vast amounts of cognitive energy to decide between what could be a large number of options.

This is especially the case for those who don’t know much about the products or services, where Default options can take away the fear of getting that first decision wrong.

They're also a powerful remedy to any potential Analysis Paralysis, and are particularly helpful when making multiple choices one after the other.

Consider that you’re buying a computer, with a range of possible customisations to various parts.

If there were no default choices set, we’d quickly become overwhelmed with what was the right choice in each step.

If you have complicated product ranges or customisations, are you setting helpful Defaults? If you are, think hard about whether these need improving to reduce effort further.

But also, a word of warning.

Defaults can be terribly misused to force people into decisions that they don’t want.

Take people down the wrong path and you’ll quickly trigger Reactance; an angry feeling where people will want to reclaim their independence, often doing the opposite of what you Default them to.

Ensure that your Defaults have peoples’ own intentions in mind and don’t deviate too far from what people would do of their own choosing.  

What Defaults are you setting? How can these be improved to help smooth out decision-making and guide people to better  outcomes, either for themselves (e.g. helping them save more money) or for the wider group (e.g. defaulting meeting times to 15 minutes instead of 30).

Defaults are set everywhere. They’re powerful and have a big influence on behavior with little effort.

Faced with a set of options, when we’re not sure what’s the “right” choice, Defaults offer a helpful guide.

They help people avoid expending vast amounts of cognitive energy to decide between what could be a large number of options.

This is especially the case for those who don’t know much about the products or services, where Default options can take away the fear of getting that first decision wrong.

They're also a powerful remedy to any potential Analysis Paralysis, and are particularly helpful when making multiple choices one after the other.

Consider that you’re buying a computer, with a range of possible customisations to various parts.

If there were no default choices set, we’d quickly become overwhelmed with what was the right choice in each step.

If you have complicated product ranges or customisations, are you setting helpful Defaults? If you are, think hard about whether these need improving to reduce effort further.

But also, a word of warning.

Defaults can be terribly misused to force people into decisions that they don’t want.

Take people down the wrong path and you’ll quickly trigger Reactance; an angry feeling where people will want to reclaim their independence, often doing the opposite of what you Default them to.

Ensure that your Defaults have peoples’ own intentions in mind and don’t deviate too far from what people would do of their own choosing.  

What Defaults are you setting? How can these be improved to help smooth out decision-making and guide people to better  outcomes, either for themselves (e.g. helping them save more money) or for the wider group (e.g. defaulting meeting times to 15 minutes instead of 30).

Defaults are set everywhere. They’re powerful and have a big influence on behavior with little effort.

161 people were told that they’d just moved to a new US state and that here, the default was (or wasn’t) to be an organ donor. They were then asked to accept or change this donation status.

Results showed that only 42% donated when the default was to opt out, but 82% when defaulted to opt in.

Defaults are powerful. They’re chosen because consumers take mental shortcuts (especially when tired) and because there’s implied trust that they’re the ‘right’ choice. Defaults also act as a reference point against better or worse options. (Dinner et al., 2011). 

Defaults can be set around anything: from the standard package you offer to new subscribers, to the pre-set top-up amount for your mobile wallet, to whether each order of pizza should come with salad. Each default can dramatically affect conversion levels and behavior.

Get the balance. Ensure your defaults feel natural and in line with consumer aspirations. The more extreme the default you set (i.e. defaulting to the most expensive option), the more effort consumers will expend weighing up the cognitive / emotional costs of not choosing the default, impacting their experience and reducing overall trust.

52 people were split into two groups and given IKEA boxes: either fully-assembled or unassembled that  they were asked to put together.

Those tasked with assembling their box were willing to pay a 63% premium for it during the subsequent bidding process over those given the pre-assembled boxes.

Provide personalization options early in your order flow to engender a sense of ownership and significantly improve conversion. Apple do this with their customizations for a new computer, as do new car showrooms. How can you add a low-risk, satisfying sense of creation into your existing products or services, especially around your USPs?

Don’t create choice overload and stress with too many pre-purchase customizations. Similarly, keep any post-purchase building effort simple, fun and low risk.  What core parts of your product manufacture should always remain out of customer hands?

Frame involvement as a value-add experience and not a labour-cost-saving exercise. How much this is felt may depend on your brand, your product and what you allow to be crafted by customers. 

218 people were split into 3 groups, given either a coffee mug or a chocolate bar and told they could swap their item for the other; or given neither and told they could choose either.

Those who’d been endowed with either item were far more likely to stick with it than those who were given neither.

Perceived ownership is powerful, allowing consumers to attribute increased value and emotional connection on what you’re offering, creating a strong desire to buy that increases over time.

It’s driven by a price gap between how much we’re willing to pay for an item and the price we’re willing to sell it for. This is due to a mix of Loss Aversion, Framing (i.e. buyer or seller) and the evolutionary advantage of overvaluing our tradable possessions. Doing so increases our resources and chances of survival.   

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Allow people to feel ownership of a product prior to purchase. Examples include: making it effortless to add that product to their basket, visually personalizing a product early in the ordering process, highlighting how soon it could be at your door or allowing free week-long test drives of that car you’ve always wanted.

88 household individuals were split into three groups and  asked to either wear a badge supporting a  charity, asked to wear one along with another family member or not to wear at all. That same evening, all groups were then asked for a financial donation to the charity.

Those who were first asked the small request were far more likely to go on and donate money than those who weren’t.

Start with a question promoting reflection on one’s values. Their answers will create a desire to be consistent with their beliefs.

Have people perform a small related action. e.g. People who put a small “Drive carefully” sign in their window are more likely to follow the instruction than those who merely say they will. Frame it as a social norm.

Prime the ‘helpful’, ‘cooperative’ ‘supporter’ with positive feedback prior to a future request. 

Make the target request a continuation of the initial one. The more similar the activity, the greater success. Also balance your request sizes. If the initial request is too big, people won’t do it, never getting to the target request. But too-small tasks will widen the gulf between the two.

212 Iowan households had their energy use tracked for a year with the aim of reducing it. Half who agreed to reduce were told their name would be shown publicly in the local paper.

Those publicly committing demonstrated a 15.5% larger average reduction in energy use over winter.

Anchor any request with a leading question that supports others’ positive judgements of themselves or their past decisions.

Start with a small request that allows the respondent to remain consistent with their answer to this question. Commitments are self-reinforcing and build over time, so build slowly on this initial commitment with further, larger requests such as a future product purchase.

Make it public. Declaring an opinion to others on a subject or product will compel consumers to remain consistent with and even strengthen this opinion in future, especially if written down. e.g. asking others to tweet why they love a product will strengthen attachment to it, as well as fostering social proof for others.

What info we decide to surface visually has a powerful effect on peoples’ decisions. The same is also true for what we choose to hide.

For instance, if I wanted to design a work environment where people ate more fruit, I could buy bananas and apples but store them in the fridge, out of view.

But this would have what we call “low salience”, or a low likelihood of being seen.

Instead, to boost fruit consumption further, we’d want to increase Salience.

So now, instead of hiding the fruit in the fridge, we put it in large colourful bowls in central, highly visible areas of the office in eye line and within arm’s reach.

Now the fruit have “high salience” and are much more likely to be eaten.

Note that this also has second order effects; more salience from the fruit bowls means more people eating fruit, creating a powerful salience cycle.

What do you want people to do more or be more aware of? How can you increase its salience next to other things?

Another strategy is to remove other things around it to increase salience in relative terms. So in the fruit example, we might want to remove the coffee machine to give the bowls greater salience.

What info we decide to surface visually has a powerful effect on peoples’ decisions. The same is also true for what we choose to hide.

For instance, if I wanted to design a work environment where people ate more fruit, I could buy bananas and apples but store them in the fridge, out of view.

But this would have what we call “low salience”, or a low likelihood of being seen.

Instead, to boost fruit consumption further, we’d want to increase Salience.

So now, instead of hiding the fruit in the fridge, we put it in large colourful bowls in central, highly visible areas of the office in eye line and within arm’s reach.

Now the fruit have “high salience” and are much more likely to be eaten.

Note that this also has second order effects; more salience from the fruit bowls means more people eating fruit, creating a powerful salience cycle.

What do you want people to do more or be more aware of? How can you increase its salience next to other things?

Another strategy is to remove other things around it to increase salience in relative terms. So in the fruit example, we might want to remove the coffee machine to give the bowls greater salience.

Over 10 days, millions of people using online ticket marketplace Stubhub were put into two groups, where 15% ticket fees were either made salient up front during ticket browsing, or hidden until checkout.

Results found that for those with delayed salience of the fee, revenue increased by 21%, with a quarter of this due to higher priced tickets being bought.

What is seen is what is done

Surfacing key information in a timely fashion can prompt us to do more of what we aspire to. For instance, Amazon have redesigned their Kindle so that when it's not in use, the screensaver becomes the cover of the book you're currently reading. This acts as a salient reminder to read as one notices the Kindle throughout the day. We can use the same approach to boost healthy eating, having a bowl of fruit on the kitchen table over one filled with salty cashews. What do you want users to do more of? How do you want them to feel? What unique or delightful features can you surface that will help inspire action and make Tiny Habits that much more likely to form?

More knowledge isn't necessarily better

There's a trade-off between what's presented to us now and making good decisions for our future. For instance, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase choose to omit the % gained or lost from one's investments. Research shows that if they instead showed this, people may incorrectly sell coins that have increased in value, while keeping coins that have dropped in value, known as the Disposition Effect.

Differentiate by removing information

Whereas knowledge can be power, it can also demotivate. For example, weight loss scales Shapa does away with the number telling you how much you weigh, instead providing 5 colour bands denoting averaged performance. Omitting the number shifts us away from short term fluctuations in weight that can lead to feelings of failure causing us to give up. What information or options could you hide that could otherwise lead users to short term or harmful outcomes? What can you remove that could confuse or overwhelm?

Delayed salience can trigger shock

Also consider the ethical implications of hiding key information, as in the study above. In this case, any reactance felt will be relative to the proportion of the extra fees incurred, customer expectations, industry norms and how frequent the transaction is. Hidden fees on more regular transactions like grocery shopping will be subject to higher levels of reactance than one-offs like a car purchase. There is an art to surfacing such painful information at the correct time in order to generate a sale. Try adding an explanation of why the fee exists to reduce drop-off, like Airbnb do.

36 medical students were first asked to diagnose six clinical cases (Phase 1). They were then asked to diagnose a further eight, four of which were similar to Phase 1, but were actually different (Phase 2). Their accuracy for successful diagnosis was rated out of four.

Average diagnosis scores were 17.5% lower for Phase 2 cases that were similar to those in Phase 1.

Create pre-experiences.

‍During product development sessions, prime attendees with prototypes to first tell a detailed story of an imagined future. This will increase innovative ideas by reducing both incremental thinking  (Liedtka, 2015) and inferior ideas brought about through Ownership Bias and any Sunk Costs.  

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Conduct reflective reviews.

‍After results are in from product experiments, reviewing the specific causes behind both failures and successes is critical. This will help you understand any assumptions or misdiagnosis brought about by merely relying on what comes easily to mind (Ellis and Davidi, 2005). 

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Include real customers in retrospectives.

‍Combining reflective reviews with real customer feedback will boost team performance (Schollaert, 2009) and help suppress the perils of your team's own Confirmation Bias.

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249 supermarket customers were invited to one of two tables, displaying either 24 jams or 6 jams. They were then asked how attractive the jams were and observed as to whether they bought one.

The results found that though customers considered the 24 jams more attractive, they were far more likely to buy when there were only 6 jams to choose from.

Reduce choice difficulty. If customers are time-poor, reduce the number of dimensions along which your products are compared. Present choices in an organised, non-random order, especially with visual layouts. 

Tidy up choice relationships. Highlight one dominant option, align the attributes along which products are compared, and eliminate products from your range that overly complement each other to decrease deferral and increase purchase likelihood.

Adapt to product expertise. Who is your audience? To what extent can they weigh up the benefits of each possible choice? Experts prefer more choice and the lesser-informed crave less.

Build around intent & focus. Intent: are they buying or merely browsing? If browsing, they’re not making a decision, and are less likely to feel overloaded. Focus: a single purchase or a bundle? Bundlers want more options, but Singles want fewer.

300 customers at a car wash were split into two groups and given one of two different loyalty cards for a free wash upon completion: either one with space for 8 stamps or one for 10 (with 2 spaces pre-stamped).

Despite both cards requiring the same amount of effort, completion of the non-pre-stamped 8 card over a 9-month period was only 19% whereas the pre-stamped 10-card was 34%.

Get them started. Endow progress with a fraction of points, stars or a brand-specific measure. Make sure you endow enough to motivate use, aiming for between 10-25% of the total effort required for the first reward.  As well as helping with initial effort, make the reward itself substantial and meaningful to assist habit-forming.

Never endow at the end. The closer we are to a goal, the more we value our own internal efforts to complete it. Doing so on their behalf will devalue existing effort, perceived reward value and reduce loyalty strength.

Make it seamless. In Christmas 2013, 1 in 8 Americans got a Starbucks Gift Card. On redemption they were automatically endowed with progress in the form of loyalty stars, creating 1.5m new loyalty members as a result. How can you seamlessly channel gift customers through to your loyalty scheme?

435 people were asked to go to a restaurant and split into four groups. They were then either given a surprise free dessert or not, and then finally either given an explanation of the reason for the surprise or not. All were then asked to rate their level of delight.

Those given the explanation rated the surprise as more delightful than those who weren’t.

Surprise sparingly.  The more frequent the surprise, the less positive it will make customers feel. Give your staff creative autonomy to make small, personal & unexpected gestures that strike deep. 

Provide an explanation for the surprise to suppress future unrealistic customer expectations, avoid mistake misconceptions and heighten the sense of personalization. 

Reframe problems into surprises. During a busy Christmas, Lush (a UK soap store) had a long queue, which an elderly lady holding one item had joined. A shop assistant noticed, pointing out the queue length and that she didn’t need to pay. After he insisted she accept, she hugged him and left the shop with the free item. Another customer then told him that witnessing his kindness  had made her day. Both will recall compassion, positive surprise and stress relief in future perceptions of the Lush brand.

58 households in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had their fruit and veg shopping monitored for 8 weeks. Half were offered a 50% discount reward on all fruit and veg purchased and half were not.

Results showed that the reward increased healthy food purchasing behavior from 6.4 to 16.7 servings of fruit and veg  on average per week per household.

Rewards come in two types: Extrinsic and Intrinsic. 

‍Extrinsic rewards are economic: pay, discounts, working conditions, gold stars, healthcare, promotions etc. 

Intrinsic rewards are emotional, coming from a sense of achievement through skill and hard work, unplanned verbal praise from authority figures, and peer recognition.

Too much extrinsic will lessen internal motivation as it’s seen as controlling, especially if they’re later removed (Murayama et al., 2010). Ensure that they’re significant enough to motivate against task boredom (Hidi, 2015) and are in line with the market needs of employees / customers.

Focus on rewarding intrinsically - seen as a superior reward (Deci et al., 1999) - with greater levels of trust, choice and freedom to make one’s own decisions. You’ll be rewarded with a more motivated, loyal following as a result.

40 students were taught a topic and either given the respective homework once instantly or 3 times over the next 3 weeks. They then had an exam a month later.

Those who had the homework spaced out over time performed much better in the exam than those who were asked to do it immediately  after learning.

Spread out the learning.

‍Research shows that spaced repetition is the most robust means of learning but is rarely used by companies. Most knowledge is delivered once and forgotten, wasting money and time. Develop shorter learnings spread over time, using different tools, both digital and physical.

Use it or lose it.

‍Knowledge only sticks when we use it. After reading a book chapter, summarize learnings into bullet points, a list of actions, or even better, become the teacher. Blinkist could send some simple interactive questions after readers have finished a book. Use Slack app QuickQuiz to follow up Lunch & Learns with a Tiny Habit of bite-size questions. 

Make progress trackable.

‍Learnings apps like Duolingo and Memrise create powerful Feedback Loops through points systems, daily goals and leaderboards to create positive reinforcement. Tracking progress gives us a sense of growth and improvement.

48 people were shown 100 sets of numbers of different lengths, split up into a number of smaller chunks. After seeing each set, they were asked to recall the numbers in a memory test.

The results found that, on average, people were good at remembering about 7 numbers and 4 chunks before memory errors started kicking in.

Chunk for clarity.

‍Our short-term memory is limited, so whether you're designing a food menu or trying to share a new idea, prevent Analysis Paralysis by breaking information down into 3-5 smaller bites that are easier to process. 

Chunk requests.

‍If you're asking for a lot of info from customers, how can you break the task into more manageable segments?

Data capture company, Typeform are a great example of this, turning the concept of chunking into a core USP for its data capture products.

Chunk for long-term understanding.

Boost knowledge retention by structuring each chunk learned to build upon what was learned in previous ones. Repeat past chunks to build a strong, modular connection between fragmented bouts of learning.

Language app, Duolingo does this in an engaging visual way.

22 students were shown a range of graduate yearbook photographs a varying number of times for 2 seconds each. They were then asked how much out of 7 they liked each person.

Results showed that the more times they’d seen a given graduate photo, the more they liked them.

Expose the unknown within the known.

Create trust for new, unfamiliar products by sample-bundling with existing products. UK supermarket, Waitrose did this expertly when it first introduced kiwi berries, managing consumer unfamiliarity by bundling a small free sample with large packs of trusted blueberries.

This approach is known as a Foot In The Door.

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Exposure first. Behavior change second.

Reduce people’s Risk Aversion by taking a staged approach to rolling out new ideas or policies.

Instead of starting by looking to change behavior, just expose people to some introductory aspect of it, using the Spacing Effect to spread experiences out across time and environment.

Let the new become the familiar for a while before making more advanced requests of people.

Overcome your own Confirmation Bias...

...by exposing yourself to new viewpoints. Though you may not agree with all you hear, you'll develop a skill to see common ground in an increasingly-polarized world.

The persuasiveness of your opinions with others with whom you disagree will  be strengthened by empathically considering their views alongside your own.

105 people were shown an online promotional offer, with the final offer value of 40% revealed either immediately or only at checkout.

Those in the extended curiosity condition were more likely to buy with the promotion than those who were told of the offer value immediately.

…curiosity will always be effective.

A recent campaign by Cancer Research UK to fill missing letters of the second-most common cause of cancer led to a 22% increase in its awareness. 

How can you use curiosity to drive a desire to learn about a new product or important message?

Create positive curiosity.

Vacation company srprs.me let you choose the number of people, dates and continent. You then get a scratch card to reveal your destination…but only at the airport!

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Use to convert free to paid.

‍Popular dating app Bumble uses curiosity to drive conversions. People who’ve already liked you are shown, but with their faces pixelated and no further information shown. Users are then prompted to buy BumbleBoost to close the information void.

146 people were asked to view one of four cell phones that had buttons made to look like a smile or a frown with either upturned or downturned eyes. They were then asked to rate how much they liked that particular phone.

Those who saw a friendly face liked their phone far more than those who saw a sad, negative face.

Make it human.

‍Doing so will speed up familiarity with abstract or complex products (Hart, 2013), or for new or lonely customers (Hart & Royne, 2017).

Where can you add warm humanness to your product?

Go all in.

‍In 2009, price comparison site Comparethemarket changed its fortunes overnight by introducing Aleksandr, a talking Russian meerkat. With his own language, highly active social media presence, soap opera, merchandise and even a pseudo-autobiography, he’s one of the most talked about ad campaigns in recent UK history.

Unboxing as ‘birth’.

‍Consider Flymo's Robotic Lawnmower. Many owner reviews on Amazon gave their 'new family member' a name, but Flymo could build this smoothly into the unboxing experience. How can you design for a subtle human bond at first sight? Doing so may create a stronger Ownership Bias and may lead consumers to take greater care of their product, along with being more tolerant of any of its characterful 'shortcomings'.

The food choices of 89 people both dieting and not dieting were analyzed in a cafe. Diners were given a menu with either information highlighting low-calorie options or not (the control).

Results showed that dieters primed with the reminder of their future goal consistently made healthier food choices than unprimed dieters.

Who is the target group?

‍They could be people who are motivated to protect the environment, improve productivity at work or improve the quality of their lives. Note: they must have already stated a desire for this goal. Your prime will merely aim to nudge their existing Commitment to meeting their own aspirations.

Where can you trigger these long-term motivations?

As well as environment, timing also matters, so make sure that you do so very close to the actual decision point, i.e. at the start of a meeting, at the ordering counter or on the inside of a restroom door.

Boost with the Spacing Effect.

What's the specific behaviour that you're allowing them to perform to help move them towards their long term goal?

It has to be obvious and easy to do, such as clearly identifying an eco-friendly substitute, bolting on a salad or opting for an equally-priced, dairy-free option.

408 people were shown one of three versions of a shampoo advert. The control just had the words “Say bye-bye to your dandruff” with an image of a couple. The two metaphor versions both had “You may erase anything unwanted” with either an eraser (implicit) or the bottle of shampoo (explicit) rubbing out words on a blackboard.

Results showed greater purchase intentions for the product with either metaphorical ad.

Leverage our existing understanding of the world for new ideas or concepts. Complicated ideas are best understood through existing ones. What analogies can you draw that your customers can relate to?

Easy metaphors aren’t always best. Research has found that metaphors with a little complexity are fun and act as a mild problem to solve. Use with Curiosity and Humor.

Reserve this for known brands or products; for new or abstract technology, keep metaphor complexity low.

Metaphors come in different flavors:

Juxtapositions: two images next to one another;

‍Fusions: mixing two concepts into a single one; or

‍Replacements: switching one thing for another. 

Just make sure that you harness real world understanding to help ground your new idea.