3 Keys to meaningful engagement & support for wellbeing in tech

As tech makers, we all want to boost motivation, engagement and even foster #DigitalWellbeing. These are design holy grails, but grails are wicked and crafty beasts — black box concepts that are hard to pin down and design for. That is, until you understand the three things that feed them.

In recent research published in the journal, Frontiers in Psychology, I worked with world-leading motivation psychologist Richard M. Ryan and Imperial College Design Engineer, Rafael A. Calvo to team up motivation psychology and UX. The result is a knowledge jackpot for anyone who builds technology.

It turns out that motivation, engagement and wellbeing (yes all three!) are contingent on the same three “basic psychological needs”.

You can see the work of Ryan and colleagues for over 40 years of consistent evidence for this claim. What’s more, these psychological needs are specific and measurable, which makes them excellent targets for design.

As if that weren’t enough, by designing for these needs, we’ll get a slew of other benefits, like improved health (for health tech), better learning gains (for ed tech), more enjoyable gameplay (for gaming) and increased performance (for everything…