Another great article by Nir Eyal in which he compares pushing people to do unpleasant tasks with his daughter’s visit to the doctor.
Takaways from this article:
Staging tasks into small conquerable chunks is so basic yet so underutilized.
Most users just want to know what to do next, and flooding them with too much information induces stress and fear. Having the forethought to appropriately stage the work can reduce this fear, which ironically, in both children and adults, is often much worse than the prick of the needle itself.
Providing a sense of progression is a form of feedback and is a key component of making unpleasant tasks more manageable.
When it comes to tasks people don’t want to do, specifically infrequent and uninteresting assignments, utilizing extrinsic rewards is safe because there is no existing behavior to de-motivate or extinguish.
Fundamentally, people resist being controlled and both the carrot and the stick can be tools for unwanted manipulation. Instead, designing behavior by putting in the forethought to appropriately stage tasks, providing progress indicators, and finally, offering celebratory rewards under the right circumstances, are easy ways to motivate while maintaining a sense of autonomy.
Considering how the receiver could more easily comply with the request is at the heart of inspiring action.
