At every step of a journeyâwhether in fitness, financial wellness, or a buyer journeyâpeople have the opportunity to fall off. Being creative about providing a motivation-rich environment at each stage is critical in determining how successful youâll be in moving them to the next one.
Why weâre covering this
- Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is one of the most evidence-backed frameworks for deconstructing motivation. It gives you a useful way to audit a behavior chain and find ways to drive action.
- SDTâs principles are useful not only in designing interventions or UX that rely on long-term motivation, but also useful in creating uptake of behaviors. A lot of effective marketing or policy calls-to-action involve emphasizing a sense of greater control, connection to a group, or performing at a high level.
- Thereâs an excellent chance youâre already familiar with SDT (and other course topics in general), so our focus is always going to be around novel examples, effective case studies, and ways to make it actionable.
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Our spin on it
- While SDTâs 3 core psychological needs are important in influencing long-term behavior, there are many other components like novelty, reward, and environmental factors which come into play (many of which weâll explore later).
- SDT is great for finding quick wins to help improve an experience that isnât working. There are almost always opportunities to create a greater sense of autonomy, drive social connections or accountability, and emphasize progress.
- A big (and helpful) mental shift is thinking of creating conditions where motivation occurs naturally or people can easily motivate themselves. Motivation isnât something people have, itâs something people do.
Hopefully, this weekâs experience will give you a richer mental toolkit to approach problems where people just arenât taking the actions you want (including maybe yourself).
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