PSYCHOLOGY OF DESIGN
Designing for motivation with the endowed progress effect
3 examples of where endowed progress is used in digital products to increase engagement, retention, and conversion
Imagine the scenario: two people have their cars cleaned at a local carwash, and each is given a different loyalty card that requires stamps to receive a reward: a free service.
Question: Which of the two loyalty cards would influence you to put in the most amount of effort?
A) A ten stamp card with no free stamps or;
B) A twelve stamp card with 2 free stamps
If you answered B, then you followed the same behaviour as most other people. Even though both cards required the same amount of stamps (10) to receive a reward, the artificial head-start gave you an illusion of progress, also known as the endowed progress effect.
The endowed progress effect motivates our behaviour to work harder and faster
In this article, we’ll observe more about how endowed progress motivates human behaviour in digital products. Before you crack on, you can learn more about the basics of motivation here.
The endowed progress effect
Psychologists Joseph C. Nunes and Xavier Dreze hypothesised the carwash experiment as the endowed progress effect; a phenomenon whereby people think they have a headstart toward completing a goal. Their studies concluded that people tend to work harder and faster when they’re given artificial advancements for an incentive — a promise of a future reward.
An artificial headstart or advancement is a powerful motivator for task completion
In a subsequent study, Nunes and Dreze researched the effects of endowed progress on points and purchases. They wanted to test if artificial advancements could influence behaviour under different conditions.
The experiment involved asking a total of 240 shoppers if they would like to join a frequent buyer programme in a metropolitan liquor store; the promotion was framed in two different ways:
- Buy 10 bottles of wine worth $10 and get another one priced $20, free
- Earn 10 points for each bottle of wine purchased at a list price of $10 or more, and after accumulating 100 points, they would be entitled to a free one worth up to $20
Some participants were told they would be credited with 50 points (5 bottles) to start; however, their required purchase amount was raised to 15 bottles or 150 points. In addition, endowed shoppers were given different conditions for entering the promotion:
- No reason at all
- A specious reason (superficially plausible, but actually wrong)
- A realistic reason based on actual purchase history
The result of the experiment was that customers were more engaged when endowed with artificial progress, as well as being given a reason for joining the programme. However, shoppers were generally more motivated by earning points than the monetary value.
Three examples of endowed progress in design
The endowed progress effect is a popular behavioural design technique for stimulating engagement in digital products. An illusion of progress is vital for motivating people, particularly in lengthy and boring processes, such as credit card application forms. Here are three examples of where and how an artificial advancement effect can inspire people to increase their efforts.
1. Stepped processes
eCommerce checkouts, credit card applications, registration forms, and any other flow of required steps, provide users with an artificial advancement by prefilling fields with existing data. This gives people a perception of a good headstart, as well as a sense of an easier process.
Prefilled fields and completed steps inspires motivation and effort in completing a stepped process
The illusion of progress can also be created by the inclusion of progress bars: a visualisation of the overall journey and the goal. The use of clear steps gives the user an understanding of how close they are to completing their flow, as well as the level of commitment that’s needed.
A progress bar that comes with an extra step, completed by default, such as login or basket, can provide users with the impression that they’ve already made the effort. But what if there are too many steps in a journey? Insurance company Marshmallow, consolidate their form fields into fewer stages and only ask you to focus on one question at a time, thus giving you the perception of lighter work.
2. Profile completion
Social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, motivate faster profile completion by showing small signs of progress. Members can view their development via a completion meter, which gives them an understanding of how close they are to reaching different statuses, including ‘intermediate’ and ‘all-star’.
Small signs of progress motivates faster completion
Each milestone serves as an incentive for investing personal information, such as employment history and sponsored charities. Once members achieve certain statuses, they’ll unlock the benefits of increased profile traffic and more relevant feed updates.
LinkedIn makes profile building more enticing by defaulting a completion meter with a percentage. By doing so, members are likely to invest more personal information to reach their targets.
3. Onboarding
Websites and apps inspire new users to complete their onboarding experience by presenting them with attractive extrinsic motivators. For example, Qordoba, an artificial intelligence writing assistant, endows its users with an illusion of an easy headstart by completing part of an interactive demo.
Work already undertaken endows learners with the perception of an easier onboarding experience
Qordoba users are also inspired by the interactive demo’s performance indicator, which holds an attractive high score by default. This endows learners with extra motivation to finish incomplete tasks.
When endowed progress is applied to an onboarding experience, similar to Qordoba, the likelihood of successful adoption is increased. In addition, if users can gain enjoyment from making progress, then they’ll likely push their efforts even more.
The endowed progress effect is motivating; people are more likely to complete a journey or finish a task when given an artificial headstart. Progress bars, points, scores, and checklists are endowment tools that can help increase engagement, retention, and conversion for digital products. Before you move on, here are some final thoughts…
Takeaways
- The endowed progress effect can influence behaviour in effort and frequency, as well as decrease task abandonment
- Reframed tasks can make people think they have already made progress
- Clear steps provide users with an understanding of how close they are to reaching a goal, as well as how much commitment that’s needed
- Artificial headstarts, such as completed objectives and high scores, can inspire users to engage more with their environment
Special mentions
- Endowed Progress Effect: How Artificial Advancement Increases Effort — Joseph C. Nunes, Xavier Dreze
- Kawaii icons (used in all illustrations) — Freepik
