Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive Technologies) [Hardcover]

* Computers offer an advantage over traditional persuasive media because they are interactive.
* As a tool, computers can be persuasive by making target behavior easier to do.
* Leading a user through a process aids in persuasion.
* Persuasive technologies often perform calculations or measurements that motivate.
* As a medium, a computer will be persuasive if it allows users to explore cause-and-effect relationships.
* Computing technologies that help people rehearse a behavior can be persuasive.
* Persuasive technologies can provide users with vicarious experiences that motivate them to change their behavior.
* By rewarding people with positive feedback, computers act as persuaders.
* Persuasive technologies often model a target behavior or attitude.
* Computers that create a relationship with the user and provide social support are effective persuaders.

Of particular note: Chapter 7 deals with what makes a web-site believable, and should be required reading for any web designer or content developer who wants surfers to change an action or belief based on their site, whether that action is as simple as returning to that site again and again or as complicated as stopping smoking. This chapter alone will be worth having the entire book on your shelf.

Another insight Fogg makes that struck me is how computers differ from traditional media in their ability to persuade: computers can adapt (within their programming of course) the message, its frequency and many other variables based on the response of the user. Television and print can't do that. This ability gives computers great power to persuade, closer in some ways to a human adapting a speech based on crowd response. Of course, computers have many advantages as persuasive agents that humans do not, such as the ability to provide anonymity and simulation of events. Persuasive Technology is filled with similar insights.

This is a very accessible book. Easy to skim when it deals with something less relevant to you. (Fogg's background in information design shows to great benefit.)

All in all worth the read.

For a fresh perspective on the forces shaping next-phase software and Web development, look no further than "Persuasive Technology" by Dr. B.J. Fogg, director of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University. Surely, academic research may fail to generate the enthusiasm of erstwhile launch parties and public offerings, but Dr. Fogg's work offers a purposeful key to helping us understand, and thereby design, more effective and sustainable (read: revenue-generating) interactive technologies.

Proposing a new analytical model called "captology", short for "computers as persuasive technologies", Dr. Fogg is the first to address the increasingly important role of computers in actuating attitudinal and behavioral change - in other words, the ability to persuade users to take a particular action: to buy more, play more, lose weight, quit smoking, register to win, etc. For technology researchers accustom to the tenets of Usability - essentially the evaluation of functionality and "likability" - captology goes a significant step further, addressing the extent to which an interactive device (be it a website or mobile phone) succeeds in changing users' attitudes and behaviors. The importance of this research is unquestionable, if you can imagine (or personally relate to) an online marketer anxious to sell more goods, or a smoker who turns to a motivational website to help him/her quit. It is no longer enough for a website or software tool to be "user friendly"; its intended objective - as a tool of persuasion - must be achieved.

Through the study of captology, designers have a new framework for building products, services and promotions that succeed in generating the results they seek. What could be more timely and constructive in this period when all sectors - commercial, educational, social/civic and more - are straining to yield measurable, bottom-line results from their technology investments?

Thank you, Dr. Fogg, for the fresh and purposeful approach. Your timing couldn't be better!

Cate Riegner
M.A. Communications, Annenberg School for Communication. University of Pennsylvania
Principal, Media-Screen Consulting
Founder, artAngels.org