Captology: “persuasive technology”
I’ve just had a rare moment of clarity.
A few posts back, I wrote about fundamentally redesigning the online banking interface to look like a collage of real-life ‘reasons to spend’ (loved one’s education, car stereo, rent etc.) to help people to manage their money better. The post was inspired by some research conducted by a Professor of Marketing in Canada called Dilip Soman.
Well, Rory talks here about the importance of behavioural economics to the future architecture of the communications industry. In the video, he mentions a Dr. BJ Fogg, a Professor (yes, another one!) at Stanford.
It turns out that captology, Dr. Fogg’s pet subject, is what I was skirting around with my blog post but couldn’t quite put into context in the grander scheme of things:
Captology is the study of computers as persuasive technologies. This includes the design, research, and analysis of interactive computing products created for the purpose of changing people’s attitudes or behaviors.
First off, ‘persuasive technologies’ is a fantastic little phrase bursting with meaning. I hope not to wear it out over the next few weeks.
Secondly, this meeting of technology and behavioural science gets me very excited. Obviously there are elements of both of these things in some of the work that the comms industry already produces (most recently, Fiat eco:Drive). What excites me though is the implicit motivation behind Dr. Fogg’s work to make the world a better place. Peace Innovation? I’m in!
Check out captology papers and case studies here.
Fascinating stuff Nick, thanks for my first introduction to persuasive technologies. I’ve just watched the videos, downloaded the pdf’s and ordered the books as a result.
I was reading a feature in the Sunday Times today about Steve Jobs and how he’s not an engineer, he can’t design for shit and he knows nothing about circuit boards. But he is the ultimate end, user knowing exactly what will work for consumers and restoring consumers childlike wonder with apple’s products. Perhaps he’s just a really good behaviour economist?
Some other interesting stuff on banks here by the way…
http://letsbehumanbeings.typepad.com/letsbehumanbeings/2008/02/life-tracker.html
http://noisydecentgraphics.typepad.com/design/2007/12/bank.html
Hey Ted,
Thanks for stopping by.
Glad someone else is as geeked out by captology as I am. Which books have you bought, just out of curiosity?
Those online banking links are great – thanks for sharing.
Don’t know enough about it but I imagine that the big barrier to overcome with making the online banking interface more human is tying it to the super-complex back-end stuff that crunches all the numbers?
n
Hey Nick.
I got the ‘Nudge’ book on behaviour economics. Was tempted by Queuing for Beginners but the reviews made it sound very US centric.
I think that one brave bank has a massive opportunity to win some ground by producing an online banking system of the ilk of Nike+ or Fiat eco:Drive. They probably just need to stop letting their IT people tell them it’s not possible and tell them to just do it even if it means making a system from the ground up again. Short term pain, long term gain.
Yes, persuasive technology is the next frontier. So far, it has largely been applied to consumer products, but I have begun to apply it to organizational change as well. This is a really exciting area, I believe. If persuasive technology can be used to change the attitudes and behaviors of individuals, then why not whole companies?
Hi Michael,
Thanks for stopping by. Applying captology to organisations. Sounds really interesting. How does that work?
N
Hi, Nick
I was happy to read your post about captology.
One thing that’s never been said online is that I’ve downplayed the word “captology”. I think it’s a good word for a new area. But I’ve found that it upsets some people. They see the word as related to “capture” and get a bit freaked out.
The word is an acronym from Computers As Persuasive Technologies.
Because I didn’t want a word to be a barrier to moving forward, I have often used “persuasive technology” or “persuasive design” to describe this area.
Your post makes me think I should use “captology” and just let the chips fall where they may.
BJ Fogg
Stanford University
Hi BJ,
Over and above any misattribution to “capture”, I suppose the downside to ‘captology’ is that the CAPT acronym needs to be explained…
I really like “persuasive technology” because it conveys a great deal in just two words. I can see myself using it in work-type conversations…
Perhaps as this area of study becomes better known, CAPTology (vs. captology) can come to the fore?
Big thanks for stopping by. Glad you liked the post.
Nick