brian
i cant see there being a globally valid solution here. If the rewards
for 75% and 100% are lame, disclosing them won't help -- might even
hurt. If I saw messages from other members to the effect of "OMG I
just got the 100% reward and it ROCKS!" I might eat half as much twice
as quickly! The incentive in other words may be validated by other
users, or by disclosure of the reward, or by suggestive messaging
("You are 2 days from your next reward! Stick with it!"), or something
else ("You can see what the next reward is if you get half way to
meeting your goal").
Problem is that in some cases this will work, in others it won't
matter, and in some it may hurt. It means shifting emphasis from
user's commitment to weight loss to the reward itself. Clearly weight
loss should matter more. So any number of feelings might hijack the
user when s/he reflects on what s/he's doing -- losing weight for a
gift certificate. If the user decides that it's silly to losing weight
in order to get rewards that are all less meaningful than losing
weight, they're no longer incentives but are instead a potential
hindrance (for they cheapen the user's activity).
In which case there's little to do to keep that user incented by the
original reward. One has to give the reward a different value. So, for
example, "Donate your reward" to XYZ... Or create a system where users
who have contributed to chats, or posted inspiring messages, can be
surfaced. Then people who dont really need their reward might donate
theirs to the users who were a real community help. "Your next reward
has been matched by another user" -- now imagine that -- you not only
have doubled the cash value of the reward, but you've added a social
incentive also: the gift.
Obliged, out of politeness, personal ethics, a belief in karma, or
whatever (for it doesnt matter), the user now wants to get the reward
because somebody else donated theirs to double the incentive! Maybe
the user wins the reward and then passes it along! Maybe this turns
into one giant reward that gets donated to kids... and now everyone is
losing weight for a cause... Maybe they FB connect up their cause and
the whole thing turns into a pre-Thanksgiving fast!
...
adrian chan
On Aug 25, 2009, at 10:13 AM, Brian Mila wrote:
Thanks for the responses, but I think I didn't explain it very well.
What I have is a weight loss web service. The user can set goals, say
20 lbs, and that goal can then be broken up into milestones, say every
5 lbs. So in this case, the user has a 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%
milestone every 5 lbs. With each milestone they reach, they get
rewarded with cash or points or other incentives.
From a usability perspective, the current next milestone and its
reward is the only one the user really needs to know. So if the user
has already lost 6 lbs, the next milestone is 50% and its reward
could be a $10 gift card. They don't need to know the 75% or 100%
rewards because that info isnt relevant yet (progressive disclosure).
What I'm asking is, from a persuasion perspective, would showing all
the milestones and rewards (instead of just the next current
milestone) produce a higher goal completion percentage?
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