Mobile Persuasion: 20 Perspectives of the Future of Behavior Change
By BJ Fogg, Dean Eckles, Ian Bogost, Sunny Consolvo, Eric Holmen, Mirjana Spasojevic, Josh Ulm, Sebastien Tanguay, Susan Walker, Sean White
The mobile phone will soon become the most powerful channel for persuasion. This book presents 20 perspectives on how mobile devices can be designed to motivate and influence people - and how this emerging trend will change the way you live, work, and play. Contributing Authors: Ian Bogost, Peter Boland, Sunny Consolvo, Martin Cooper, Erik Damen, Will Dzierson, Dean Eckles, BJ Fogg, Paul Hedtke, Peter Heywood, Rachel Hinman, Eric Holmen, Alex Kass, George LeBrun, Deb Levine, Jerry Michalski, Eric Paulos, Michael Sarfatti, Ian Smith, Mirjana Spasojevic, Sebastien Tanguay, Josh Ulm, Steffen P. Walz, Sean White.
Excellent introduction to the possibilities
We love the do-everything gadget that is always with us. The mobile phone will be the most effective instrument of persuasion in the coming decade, says co-author and Stanford professor B.J. Fogg. My handset can play the roles of concierge, coach and court jester. Linkage to the Web 2.0 world is a precursor to its ability to augment my social reality.
The book consists of 20 perspectives offered by speakers at 2007 Mobile Persuasion, a conference hosted by Fogg's Persuasive Technology Lab. The chapters may not all describe applications and techniques that strike the reader as "persuasive" or even that useful, but consider that it is just the early crop. I was convinced that, equipped with ever-improving services, the ubiquitous gadget will most definitely be an instrument of change.
Early Movers
* Using Technology to Promote Sexual Health - Delivering critical sexuality information to teens on-demand by text message.
* MyFoodPhone: The Start of a Mobile Health Revolution - A photographic diet logger and coach.
* Persuasive Games on Mobile Devices - Multiplayer games that change thinking.
* Simply Persuasive: Using Mobile Technology to Boost Physical Activity - Cheaper than a personal trainer.
* Managing Chronic Disease through Mobile Persuasion - Virtual assistant for diabetes patients
Under Development
* Augmented Reality: Using Mobile Visualization to Persuade - Plant identification provides an example.
* Transforming the Mobile Phone into a Personal Performance Coach - Tracking conversations to improve effectiveness at the office.
* Personal Health Assistant in the Palm of Your Hand - How to combine virtual and live assistance for a compelling service.
* Mobile Persuasion for Everyday Behavior Change - Sensor technology allows tracking personal activity and environmental conditions.
Design Insights
* Designing Engaging Mobile Experiences - Strategies for overcoming the UI limitations of the mobile device.
* The Four Pillars of a Successful Mobile Marketing Vision - Consumer preference, marketing as service, personalization and relationships.
* Pervasive Persuasive Play: Rhetorical Game Design for the Ubicomp World - Serious games aim at inspiring educating and training their players.
* Mobile Persuasion and the Power of Meaning - MySpace, for example, is successful because of the meaning it has in user's lives.
* Mobile Persuasion Design Principles - How mobile is different from the desktop.
The Bigger Picture
* The Need for Simplicity - Simply put, KISS.
* The Jetson Kids Reboot HealthCare - More opportunities in health.
* Ethical Dangers of Mobile Persuasion - Things to think about in a society with billions of surveillance cameras.
* Redefining Persuasion for a Mobile World - Co-author Dean Eckles offers a different view of persuasion based on the augmentation the mobile provides its owner.
In the last chapter, "Increasing Persuasion Through Mobility", Fogg notes that effective persuaders always control the time and place for their message. With the mobile always at my side and aware of my location, I'm optimally receptive to right message, reminder or suggestion, delivered at the right time and right place. With enough software, it can predict what I might need and how to help me. It's almost like we're married.
Adhering to the principles of mobile persuasion will make a service successful.
* Kairos. Offering suggestion at just the right time and place.
* Mobile Loyalty. A successful service will fill the needs of the device owner first before providing value to the provider.
* Mobile Marriage. Positive, frequent interactions for a long time.
* Information Quality. Current and accurate.
* Social Facilitation. Allowing observation of owner's performance by others increases effectiveness of persuasion.
* Social Comparison. Everyone likes being on the leader board.
* Competition. Cooperation and Recognition. All strong motivators.
19 books in 1
Stanford's Captology group has done something amazing with this book. (First - a little disclosure - I'm Eric Holmen from SmartReply, the author of the Mobile Marketing chapter of this book.) This book takes academic and industrial thought leaders, and compresses their real-world experiences, marketplace results, and tested views into about 2,000 words for each of 19 chapters, with a surprise 20th chapter. Rarely will you find a book with such breadth of content that is focused on such a misleading simple device as the mobile phone. This is a snapshot into the future.
Covering topics as diverse as augmented reality, mobile marketing, health, and social living improvements and the persuasive methods and effects therein - the reader will find a view into the future in his or her area of interest, and undoubtedly be exposed to a world of new concepts.
From a contributors perspective, the Stanford Captology folks were able to take this very fresh research and turn it into a book in about two months time - unheard of from a publishing standpoint. This means that the reader will find content that is happening today, not aged or suffering from the typical 18 month long publishing delays.
The Future of Persuasion is Mobile
This book gives insight into the swiftly growing world of persuasive technology in the form of the mobile phone. Throughout the book, you are taken through the perspectives of 19 different experts on the topic, whose specialties range from persuasive games to managing a chronic disease to the ethical dangers of mobile persuasion. The book is incredibly easy to read and has a surprising 20th chapter that inspires the reader to look at his/her own experiences.
With the ubiquity of mobile phones, the huge influence mobile persuasion can have on the world is unquestionable. Have you ever gotten a text message or a call on your cell phone asking you to add extra preferences to your plan, try a new product, or pay your bill? Then a form of mobile persuasion has already touched your life. Pick up this book and stay on the cutting edge of what will prove to be a huge part of everyone's lives in the near future. This book and Stanford University's Persuasive technology Lab will make it easy, and you won't regret it.
