Design for Persuasion and Elaboration Likelihood Model
We live in a world where everyone is pursuing us to do something or the other. While browsing the internet, you might have seen titles like -
100 MOVIES YOU MUST WATCH BEFORE YOU GO TO BED!
- Your favourite blogger
Or here is a famous quote
Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that who cares?… He’s a mile away, and you’ve got his shoes!
- Billy Connolly
Mr. Billy is convincing us to steal some stranger’s shoes!
With the evolution of technology, this is becoming even more relevant to digital experiences enhancing our ability to influence human behaviour, as technology becomes an intrinsic part of our lives.
One could argue that persuasion is amoral because it involves deliberately pushing people to do something they would not otherwise.
And I couldn’t agree more.
How many times salespeople( Con Artists or Trusted Advisors? ) showed up on your door to sell you the best insurance policy plan in the entire universe?
But what if?
This time instead of a salesperson, your best friend shows up on your door, and over the coffee, he explains to you about how he saved 90 thousand bucks! in medical bills by taking an insurance policy. And this time you are swayed to buy the policy because you trust your best friend’s interest to be in your favour.
In the above situation, the difference was in the intent of persuasion, and that is what decides the morality. Persuasion inherently isn’t good or bad; instead, it’s a tool when in safe hands, can be extremely beneficial. However, someone can easily use it for a maleficent purpose.
Ultimately, as a designer onus is on us to act ethically and apply persuasive techniques thoughtfully.
As a designer understanding persuasion can help you in:
- Communicating effectively to the user
- Directing users to take appropriate action
- Making decision processes easier for the user
- Building brand credibility
While there are numerous theories like cognitive dissonance theory, social judgment theory, etc. trying to explain how persuasion works Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is the most cited one.
So what is the Elaboration Likelihood Model?
ELM was put forward in the ’80s by American psychologists John Cacioppo, co-founder of the field of social neuroscience and Richard Petty, a prominent psychology professor at Chicago University.
The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) attempts to explain how sometimes we are influenced by the speaker’s message and other times by the appearance or status of the speaker.
Here Elaboration refers to the amount of effort an audience member has to use in order to process and evaluate a message
ELM helps to explain how attitudes are formed and changed through persuasion.
According to the theory, attitude change occurs in two ways depending on the effort(high or low elaboration) they put in order to process information.
These are also known as two routes of persuasion-
1. Central route processing
2. Peripheral route processing
Central route processing-
This involves a high level of elaboration. In this case, the audience is motivated to pay attention and think about the details. They are more willing to invest their time while going into details.
To achieve Central processing a few requirements are necessary-
Motivation to process- The audience has to be motivated and should feel a connection with the message.
Ability to process- The audience should not get distracted; as they might be hearing but not listening to anything.
Nature of arguments- If the arguments are strong, valid and well-constructed audience will be more willing to change their attitude.
Usually, the Central route to persuasion leads to an attitude change that is long-lasting and enduring.
Peripheral route processing-
This happens when there is a low level of elaboration. This means the audience is unwilling or unable to put their effort into understanding the details of the message.
Persuasion can still happen but instead of the content of the message here, surface qualities like visual appeal, presentation, and familiarity with the subject plays an important role.
Now, let’s see how to make designs that appeal to your users via both central and peripheral processing routes.
Integrating ELM in the design process
Let’s take an example where we are designing a website for a company who sells Mutual funds. Our users would include seasoned and well-informed investors, curious potential investors looking for information, someone who has disposable income or a user who accidentally landed on our site.
For Central Route Processor: Our target audience persona for the user who is most likely to take the central route would look something like this-
As we can see Sheryl is both motivated and has the ability to process detailed information about the topic.
To make her use the central route, we need to create a landing page that meets her need, like Billy said: “to walk a mile in her shoes”.
Her core needs revolve around the future of the family, so if we put an image of a businesswoman enjoying time with her kids and husband, we have a good chance of engaging our user than showing some generic images.
That was easy. Now the simple thought that comes to our mind is to put a lot of images aligning with our audience!
Well, don’t do that! As a UX designer, our goal is to create a user-centric website, not a photo collage to confuse the user with a lot of information. We need to find the right balance after the main image, focusing on content and functionality first. To do that we need to create a user-friendly website that speaks to our user. As we are a one-stop solution for all their needs, we would want to include the information that helps them in coming to the right decision. To accomplish this we need strong visual hierarchy, search and filtering options so that they could find what they are looking for.
It is also important how we present ourselves to the user. We need crisp and precise texts with appealing visual designs that shows us as a credible and trustworthy organisation.
A seasoned investor will examine all the available options carefully; this is where visual hierarchy and filter come into play. We show our offerings to the users in a chronological manner. First, we’ll show him/her our best performing fund according to his/her risk profile. Next, we give him the option to see the performance of our fund over the years compared to other instruments.
After sitting for an hour and browsing through all the details and weighing, the options she/he gets the crux of our message, and finally, she/he decides to invest in one of the funds through our easy to use web portal.
For Peripheral Route Processor: Our target audience persona for the user who is most likely to take the peripheral route would look something like this-
Now, what if the user is not well informed and less motivated? Meet Noah, he is successful in his career and is now looking for an investment option to save tax. He heard about tax saving mutual funds from his friend, and now he is exploring options.
Noah comes across our website and is looking to invest some part of his salary every month. This being his first investment, he is unwilling to take high risk. Noah is less informed, and thus has a more vague idea about investment than Sheryl.
To engage Noah, we have placed a large image highlighting how we could help him save his tax money.
He sees a large image on a landing page which resonates with his goal and is instantly excited. He clicks on CTA and lands on a page, where using a calculator he could choose an investment scheme without knowing much about the technicalities.
His eyes drift towards a number highlighted in green, giving him an impression of growth and safety.
He wants to achieve his goal without any possible effort, and for this reason, we have created our web portal simple and easy to use. Within minutes he is able to find what he wants.
Now, on the next page, Noah notices that we are not charging any fees, brokerage, or commissions, He immediately takes a liking towards us.
How can he say no to that?
Noah got persuaded using the peripheral route processing. Therefore he is more likely to be swayed by another product, for example, if after a few months his friend tells him about another product, he will be more likely to go with that product and leave his existing product.
Conclusion
Elaboration likelihood model is a theory about how people process information, and how the change in attitude might occur through communication. Based on motivation and ability, the audience will process information using the central or peripheral route. Use of the central route results in a lasting change in attitude, whereas the same is not the case with the peripheral route.
As a UX designer, learning about ELM would help you in designing better digital experiences. For your design to be effective, keep in mind your target audience persona and based on his/her needs carefully plan navigation, visual hierarchy and structure of the page.
On a final note:
“The role of the designer is that of a good, thoughtful host anticipating the needs of his guests.” –Charles Eames
