Psychology and user engagement: From curiosity to commitment

As we experience an inundation of digital interactions, cultivating consistent user engagement has become exceedingly challenging. And attention is certainly one of the most significant commodities in a digitally ubiquitous environment. While the attention economy often focuses heavily on capturing and monetizing users’ attention, there is also an opportunity here to build trust and motivate users to stay actively engaged.

This creates space for meaningful relationship-building beyond a series of singular touchpoints and improves the overall user experience.

But how can you motivate users?

There is no one-size-fits-all approach, of course. In any particular context, there may be a variety of factors that contribute to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, leading to greater user satisfaction.

And how can you maintain motivation over a period of time, given the fluctuations in user engagement?

This requires us to have a comprehensive understanding of what users are looking for and allow space for emergence in how their desires and needs may shift over time.

Recently, a growing number of UX advocates have pushed for the self-determination theory to be incorporated into design considerations and processes. Drawing from motivational psychology, this approach centers on how catering to the sense of belonging and psychological needs of users — autonomy, competence, and relatedness — can help create better experiences and outcomes.

All of this reiterates the importance of building relational trust with users and creating opportunities for them to shape their own experiences.

In this article, I invite us to consider the full spectrum of user engagement beyond the simple binary of whether users are engaged “enough” or not.

Forming habits and building routines

One way to keep users engaged is to help them build a consistent routine that integrates with their daily lives.

However, in some instances, you need to consider the potential for harm, as engaging with a digital application or platform too much may lead to hyper-dependency and overreliance. This prompts us to reflect on our responsibility as designers to consider the ways in which a particular experience may impact user well-being.

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One example to consider is Tiimo, a digital application designed to help people with daily planning and engage with a supportive community that intentionally centers on neurodiversity. By integrating Tiimo into their daily routines, users can feel a greater sense of accountability, connection, and empowerment as they take charge of their own lives.

Another interesting example is Hinge, which boldly positions itself as “the dating app designed to be deleted.” This almost feels at odds with the desire to “increase user engagement.” However, their unique selling point is to help people build lasting relationships and eliminate the need to use any dating application again.

This instance should provoke you to consider how user engagement is measured in the first place and the need to have an expansive view of how that may change across context and time.

Using gamification to drive motivation and engagement

Gamification is widely used to increase engagement by offering rewards to motivate users. This may look like earning badges, gaining points, and joining leaderboards. These techniques appeal to the desire to feel a sense of achievement and be able to visualize progress.

For example, Khan Academy has a variety of different badges you can earn as you continue to make progress on your learning goals. Additionally, you also have the ability to view detailed progress reports that can provide more contextual information.

Gamification is often linked with competition, which can be a strong motivator for some users and a deterrent for others. Consider the example of Duolingo, which has a league that uses incentives and rewards to keep users engaged and allows them to advance to higher levels of the league by outperforming their fellow users.

A compelling argument can be made for how this competitive approach may lead to better and more consistent user engagement. On the contrary, some users may find this off-putting or inconducive when promoting effective learning.

This is precisely why it is important to prioritize agency and choice throughout the user experience and allow users to engage in ways that align with their interests and needs.

Mapping the impact of social proof and validation

Social proof and validation can be a salient factor in influencing user decision-making and engagement. Knowing there are other users who may be in similar positions can help reduce feelings of isolation, as well as provide some degree of feedback and transparency.

Having insight into what others are saying also enables a better understanding of what the experience might feel and look like.

Social validation usually takes the form of testimonials, reviews, and other forms of user feedback.

A popular example is how Amazon has a dedicated section highlighting what customers are saying about a particular product. This can help a potential customer make a more informed decision on whether to purchase.

Another example is Yelp, a platform that provides recommendations and reviews for everything from nightlife to restaurants and home improvement services. This example highlights how some users may seek additional input before deciding whether to engage with a specific product or service.

While social validation can prove useful in many contexts, some users may find it overwhelming or stressful.

Consider LinkedIn’s job search process. When a LinkedIn user comes across a job listing and views the description, there is a field that shows the number of potential applicants. Admittedly, some users may find that information helpful, but others may feel anxiety or uncertainty about whether they should apply.

In this particular instance, there isn’t much information shared or transparency around how LinkedIn is keeping track of potential applicants.

Embracing the need for emotional design

Emotional design is an emerging area of practice within UX that draws attention to how users interact with products and services and accounts for their emotional needs. This paradigm shift has gained a fair amount of traction in terms of designing more memorable and personalized user interactions.

I would add that contextualizing a user’s engagement with a design artifact or touchpoint in a more holistic way also helps to reframe our understanding of who they are.

As we discuss the need for emotional design to be at the forefront of our design processes, it is important to be mindful of ethical implications that may arise. In some cases, emotions can be manipulated to trick users into performing harmful or undesirable actions, thus contributing to deceptive design practices that erode relational trust.

Users may also feel activated or dysregulated while engaging in a particular experience or interaction. This is critical to take into account as our design solutions also have the potential to cause harm, especially to minoritized communities. Thus reiterating the need for UX to be trauma-informed and trauma-responsive.

In recent years, there has been some promising discourse around embedding care within our interactions with users and making well-being a priority. This shift is encouraging as it expands our understanding of emotional design and also opens up possibilities to support users meaningfully.

Closing thoughts

As highlighted throughout this article, it is important to emphasize that there is no cookie-cutter solution for cultivating a sense of belonging, trust, and safety for users. Rather, we need to ensure that we can create the conditions that allow users to exercise their agency and engage in ways that align with their emotional capacity and needs.

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